Ogruns to the left of them, Ogryns to the right of them. Into the Jaws of Death rode the Highborn Covenant!

It seemed like a good idea at the time................ "hey Lano lets play 50 points of Warmahordes this Sunday."

God I'm such an idiot!

The thin purple line Vs the bloody great big thick blue line

Ogruns to the left of them, Ogryns to the right of them. Into the Jaws of Death rode the High Born Covenant!

"Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Strode the Highborn Covenant.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the Ogryns!" She said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the Highborn Covenant."




Lano lets slip that he made a special visit to Dark Sphere yesterday to pick up some extra pieces. He's such a sod.

Yep thats two full units of Ogryns, must be the Thagrosh tier list.

Here is the green team

And that will be the red team

Lano starts with a steady advance forward. Straight away I realise I am going to struggle to bring down his war beasts if I lose my Warjacks. My hope is to tie up the Ogryns with my Steelheads and Risen so my Jacks can cripple the war beasts and open up a channel to Lano's Warlock.

I know his feat is to resurrect a killed war beast so I plan to leave the beasts on one life point, still roaming about but mostly useless.

Ogryns to right of them,
Ogryns to left of them,
Ogryns in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with spear and spell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the Highborn Covenant.

Thats a lot of smashy for 50 points!

I have Stannis and my Steelheads take the left flank, while Alexia collects corpses and creates a real Tar pit force to bog down Lano while I shoot a channel through the middle to get at Thagrosh.

I put Ashlynn on the right and leave her a little exposed in an attempt to draw the majority of Lano's forces towards her before she slinks off behind her High Covenant meat shield to wait for her moment to strike.

"Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the Warbeast there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Ogryn and Warbeast both
Reel'd from the sabre stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred".

This is only the second time I have used SteelHead Halberdiers with Stannis and other support units and was really impressed with the combined arms approach they bring to the battle field.

With Stannis on the field I can assault with my Cavalry through my Halberdiers, blast away with their hand cannons before I run my Halberdiers forward to protect the cavalry with their set defense. LOVE IT!

The down side is I am REALLY struggling to hurt the Ogryns with their high armour. I buff the Halberdiers with Heroic call from Rupert to make them fearless and tough.

Afterwards Lano made the really valid point that I should have concentrated my fire on one Ogryn at a time. He is absolutely right even if I only killed one every turn it would have diminished their hitting power and area of effect and maybe even have opened a channel up to their UA so they lost the prey marker that was causing me all sorts of headaches.

But as the poem goes.................

"Ogryns to right of them,
Ogryns to left of them,
Ogryns behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with spear and spell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of the Highborn Covenant.

Here comes the flying brick!

To castrate my shooting attacks Lano casts "Fog of War" and probably some other stuff that offers all sorts of buffs to his forces and its getting harder and harder to hit stuff. This forces me to stand still to gain the aiming bonus. Again this stops the dispersal of my forces and forces my Mages to use "snipe" to hit stuff so I can not unleash the dreaded "critical brutal's".

"When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made,
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble Highborn Covenant."

The blue wall just keeps coming!!!!

The fury marker below shows how close this game was as it shows how short my Mule's shot was from sending the Ogryns for a flying lesson. Milimeters..................... bloody milimeters!

It was a theme that run through the game for both sides.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..............SO CLOSE!!!!!!!

My men of the Match has to go to the Steelhead Halberdiers. 6 points for a unit of 10, and they hung in there to the last man, causing Lano all sorts of headaches from the second they got to grips with the Ogryns.

I can't wait to use these for Magnus' tier list.

As the Halberdiers start to fall I get a nasty suprise as Alexia has to compete with Lano's new unit which also collects corpses to create lesser war beast. Seriously Lano........... seriously?

At this point only 3 figures had fallen from each side....... That was about to change in a big way!

In a trick I learnt from Russell I RUN my halberdiers into the Ogryns. I do not get the charge off but with their reach ability they tie up a lot of Lanos forces and stops the charge of Lano's entire right flank which is a LOT more devastating then mine.

I move Alexia forward to collect the corpses for the follow up attack. If I manage to charge her in to the right place I can burn off the risen to boost attacks and buy extra attacks . I also want to get her "arcane disruption" into action to cost Lano the extra fury.

"Stick it to them boys!"

Lano feels the time is right to strike and unleashes his Scythean! This thing is a nightmare, high armour, and reach as well as some sort of mental chain attack that wipes out units in one go. It can easily hold the centre of a battle field and stifle all your attacks within its vicinity.

From this angle it looks like its in but.............................

thankfully it's milimetres out!

This really is one of those games as this could have been devastating for my right flank and centre.

How close is that.

Unfortunately the Ogryns do make it in and "Old Smokey" is pulled limb from limb.

It's only at times like this you realise how big 2" is (oo er misses!) as the Ogryns now manage to tie up several of my Gun Mages.

What I really want to do is move the Mages back, give them an extra ability via Pendrake and blast away with both barrels. Unfortunately if I do this I will open up the majority of the Mages to free strikes left right and centre.

"We see you Gorman, you black oil throwing sod!"

I give the Mages "Beast lore" via Pendrake and with a little smile take aim at the Ogryns on my right. It's then Lano pipes up with "Mike, you know Ogryns are not War Beast, right?"

Its a good job my shop was closed as the tirade of four letter expletives that followed had no place in a toy shop!

At least it made Ed and Lano chuckle.

As an "up yours" to Lano I go all in on the left flank. I move my Halberdiers into positions which allow the cavalry in, Combine hit with the few Halderdiers which can Charge (never done that before, what an idiot I am!) and then charge in with the cavalry.

In an example of how complicated this stupid game is, Lano and I spend ages working out the different buffs and hexs the various units generate and then work out they all cancel each other out!

STUPID GAME!!!!

I also charge in both my Thralls and generate several risen BEHIND the Ogryns. Again its some thing I have never thought to do before, See what playing against someone like Lano does to you. Thinking on a Sunday afternoon.......... it's just not on.

I also move Alexia forward, one to open up a charge lane next turn, but mostly to collect corpses as I feel the next turn is going to be VERY painful for me!

It's all starting to look very complicated

All this action on the Left has also given me time to think about the right.

I nut an Ogryn into unconsciousness with the Vanguard, blast away at the Warbeast with the Mages and Black oil the Ogryns with Gorman.

Thats the Ogryns out of action for one turn and the Warbeast suffering damage to several elements.

Will it be enough?

What Lano and I call photo porn!

Just to really stick it to me Lano swoops into the centre of my line with his Angelicus. I imagine my Mages pulling the same sort of face Theoden did in LOTR when the Nazgul swoop in to finish him off.

Lano has to swap out his beasts for bases it it getting so stacked in the centre.

The Ogryns go berserk in my Steelheads (I think one of them did ACTUALLY go berserk), and decimate their numbers.

In retrospect I should have got Ashlynn stuck in last turn and popped her Feat. It would have saved the majority of my forces as well as really added the punch to the Mages Critical effects.

The truth is I needed Lano to play his hand first with his Warbeasts as he just would have charged them in, boosted to hit and ripped her to pieces so in retrospect I am still not sure how I should have played it (except to go out and buy a shed load of Cryx!).

The good news is I reaped plenty of corpse tokens to burn off when I finally get Alexia stuck in!

It's looking bad but I might still have a punchers chance in this one!

Its looking bad but I might still pull this one out of the bag!

Photo porn

I can't remember how but Gorman ends up in combat with the Ogryns, that was not part of the plan............................... this can only go well!

I really need to paint that wreck marker!

The Steelheads are getting ripped to pieces on the left. I have a decision to make, do I charge in with the last of my Cavalry (which has the prey marker on it!) or crash in with Alexia!

I am not completely sure if she will make the charge and want to burn off the Risen buying and boosting more attacks rather then soaking up wounds.

It so close............. ahhhhhhhh what do I do?

I go with the cavalry, if nothing else I should finish off one Ogryn with the charge and collect more corpse counters.

I move Alexia forward  to get Arcanic disruption on the Warlock and set up the charge when the last of the Steelheads are massacred!

As you can see from the above photo my right flank has basically disappeared. I figure its now or never!

As Lano has played his hand by charging in his War beast I figure its time for Ashlynn to try to tip the balance in the centre.

Its a long shot but I simply have nothing left to commit. I need to get her stuck in now or there will simply have nothing left to retaliate with after this turn!

At least it makes for a great photo.

CHARGE...................AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lano creates a lesser Warbeast from the corpse counters and charges it in to hit Ashlynn. It does some thing to negate Ashlynns feat (typical) and then causes all sorts of carnage! 

He will have to go!

As you can see from the photo below my right flank now consists of Ashylnn and half a dozen Mages, my left flank has disappeared.

By comparison Lano seems to have a LOT of stuff left AND has the ability to still create more Warbeasts!

I guess I will not have to pay the Steelheads after the battle

Finally I get to charge in Alexia! I cast "Heroic call" on the Risen via Rupert.

This means I get to make a tough roll every time I burn off a risen, inspired!

Alexia whales away and finally Ogryn start to fall. Like an idiot I forget to use "disruption" when Lano starts to cast his spells.................. that was the whole point of getting her near the Warlock!

Photo porn

50 groat, my bad arse, jive talking, gangster pimp of Llael, keeps his pimp arm strong and swings away with his pimp stick.

It turn out Warbeast are a LOT tougher then hoes and his attack comes to nothing except helping the Angelicus work up an appetite.

Get rich or die trying

Much to Lano's frustration I make TEN tough rolls in a row, inspired!

If your gonna be dumb you've got to be tough!

I cast "flashing blade" a couple of times, walk out of combat (which always upsets my opponent and then pop off the Harrier.

I figure I am being real clever as I screen Ashlynn with the Mages, making sure there is no room between the bases for the Angelicus, I even put Pendrake in the centre to make best use of his "duck" and other beast fighting abilities.

What could possibly go wrong?

This can.................

Millimeters, Bloody Millimeters!

I miscalculated by millimeters bloody millimeters!

The Warbeast attacks with two mental power attacks and I can't riposte because I don't have reach.

The rebellion ends with Ashlynn becoming a snack.

Merde!

Once again I lose to Lano the smiling assassin, of ALL the players of the Armoury gaming club he is the only one I have not beat yet.

If truth be told I never really come close to winning this one as Lano never put a foot wrong throughout the game but always with an excellent attitude and demeanor. It would be easier to hate him if he was not so bloody classy.

LESSONS LEARNT

1) Ogryns are NOT warbeasts

2) Heroic call is cool on the risen

3) Stop playing Lano if I actually want to win a game!