And so it begins! First games of the summer offensive.

This Sunday saw our summer offensive kick off with Lee's Empire and Macca's Undead contesting one table while Phil's Dark Elves and my Warriors of Chaos clashed on the other table.
Sunday turned out to be a cracking day with the kids letting me sleep in, the wife telling me I was right about something!, sun was shining, steak and eggs with a really nice glass of red wine for brunch. Then to top it off I had a great game of little soldiers with Phil.

Deployment saw me trying to make the most of any cover afforded by the terrain. The table had been set so there was no real 'sweet spot' for Phil to set up his bolt throwers and I wanted to take full advantage of this.

I also managed to win the first turn so advanced aggressively across the table.

Phil's shooting phase would see my poor Warhounds decimated but thankfully the bulk of my forces escaped unscathed.

Turn two would see me launch my army forward with several charges declared.

My unit of warriors clash with the Corsairs while my Ogres attempt to boil through the Executioners and then overrun into the main combat for a one - two, knockout blow!

The Ogres 'Do work' but are unable to break the Executioners.

My Warriors of Chaos cross swords with the Corsairs and my Exalted hero steps forward to issue his challenge. He then falls foul of the various magic items of the Dark Elf hero and takes wounds from the feedback of successfully hitting the Dark Elf hero.

My Chaos Knights suffer the curse of 'the newly painted mini' when they have an abysmal time against the Dark Elf fast cavalry!

'Chunk' the army mascot jiggles his way towards the Dark Elf crossbows. Everyone boo's at them when they open fire at him!

BOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

I still need to learn how to use my Gorebeast chariot a lot more effectively. In retrospect the Chaos Knights should have taken this slot during deployment.

During Phil's turn Chunk is slaughtered by Crossbow bolts (BOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!), but on the plus side my Ogres massacre the Executioners and my Warriors cause the Corsairs to flee!

Phil's Warlocks also start to circle the isolated Gorebeast chariot!

Turn four sees my Warriors chase the Corsairs from the field.

But my other isolated elements are pounced on and destroyed!

Turn five my Warriors of Chaos return to the field . . . . . . into the waiting guns of the Dark Elves!!

Can they survive the next two turns?

'It's almost like they were expecting us!'

My Warriors survive the cannonade of Dark elf shooting.

In turn six with the clock ticking down Phil charges in a unit of Warlocks to break the dead lock and . . . . .

 . . . . . . . I lose my Exalted hero to an attack by a BLOODY HORSE!!!!!!

The loss of the Hero means that when the final points are tallied up the game is declared a draw!!

Overall really pleased with how the game went. the were errors with deployment but I remembered all the salient rules and usually did the right thing at the right time. Overall a good first throw down against the Dark Elves and lessons to be learnt.

On the other table it was all kicking off between Lee and Macca.

Could the Imperial guns rip the undead hordes to pieces before they chomped into the Imperial forces?

Lee takes the fight to the Undead with his Altar of Sigmar in close support.

The grind begins and somehow one of Lee's mortar's manages to blow up the other one!

Lee prepares his one - two, knockout combo . . . . 

 . . . . . .  and the Imperial horses nearly caused enough damage to kill off the Vampire lord. This caused a massive cheer in the garage!

Unfortunately Macca made one of the required saving throws and when the points were totaled up Macca was declared the winner!

Two great opening games and there are not going to be any easy games with the upcoming campaign as everyone is bringing their A game.

Time to get devious!!