This is not a full battle report as we didn’t really take enough pictures. But it captures the gist of 3,500 points of Empire versus the same amount of Chaos Dwarves and Chaos reinforcements. It was played lengthways on the table seeking to control 4 objective markers placed centrally and then ‘scattered’ randomly. Pictures 1 to 7 show the deployment and initial moves. Actually, for the Chaos player, these were mainly non-moves.
Having got most of their forces into good defensive positions, the Empire team looked dominant with much of the table centre within range of their rather large gun-line. Comforted by this position, and with some excellent command rolls, they threw forward a brigade of medium cavalry down each flank (pictures 8 & 9). With the Chaos forces in some disarray through failed commands, this bold move threatened to end the game before it had really got started. But after some desperate counter-attacks the situation was stabilised with heavy Chaos losses (picture 10).
Lady luck then switched sides and the previously stationary Black Orc boar riders rushed forward the best part of 90cm in a single turn to reinforce their exposed infantry. Emboldened by the earlier success of their more lightly armoured brethren, a brigade of Empire knights moved up to threaten the Chaos right but stalled after failing a second order. The boar boys charged these knights, gained a fantastically good ‘Rage of Chaos’ bonus, and chewed them up comprehensively. For the first time, things looked troubling for the Empire team (pictures 11 & 12). Then, to make their good situation even better, in the following Chaos turn the Taurus hero managed to command the boar boys three times on a deep flanking move that placed them well behind the Empire gun line. But the snake-eyes needed to charge the guns didn’t materialise. That said, all was not good as the Chaos warriors who had previously taken refuge in a small marsh refused all orders to exit and push on towards victory (picture 13). Then, when the Empire gun-line moved away from the threat of the boars, their column formation resulted in painful double-bounce-throughs.
After some checking and double-checking, both sides were now hovering close to their break-points. The Empire team decided to ‘go for it’ by sending their remaining brigade of knights forward to hit some rather vulnerable Chaos Dwarf infantry and artillery units in the centre of the table. This needed three successive orders from the general – which succeeded! This looked like a just punishment for the Chaos player who had earlier – and rather unsportingly – placed one of the CD infantry units out in front of the drystone wall to block his gun and rocket’s LoS so they could fire at a better target than the closest one. But despite their command success, the knights ‘bounced’ after some spectacularly bad attack dice, incredible CD armour saves, and an impressive fight back that included both the artillery crews surviving and scoring successful hits in reply. But a coup de grace was still needed from the Chaos side. After all heroes and sorcerers had failed to budge anyone, the general managed to administer it with a unit of Chaos Warriors and the avenging remnants of a unit of Chaos knights that had been mauled at the start of the game (picture 14).
Overall, it was a very good game of Warmaster with the run-of-play advantage swinging back and forth many times.
