Warhammer Fantasy. Coming full circle.

Last Sunday I finally got some down time so run out the door and over to Lano's for a game of little soldiers. Lee and Damon also rocked up so Lee and I decided to lock horns.

No fancy scenarios, just 1850 points of smash mouth Warhammer.

And it will be smash mouth as Lee is fielding Khorne and I have brought a cavalry heavy Empire force!

What was really nice was this was a battle between both Lee's and I armies for the 'Tale of 4 gamers' Lee started ages ago when the Miniature Empire was still in existance.

The field is set.

The Chaos Knights and Giant come boiling out of the forest so I am forced to engage early with my Demi Gryphs. . . . Like I said . . . . Smash mouth!

My Knights run down and catch the Chaos Hounds to their fore.

In a theme that will run through the game (again!), both my cannons have a line on the Giant. True to form I either miss or inflict minimal wounds!

"It's the bloody great big thing over there!!'

Lee lunges forward and I am horrified by the speed of the Chaos advance. Blink and you miss them.

I try to buy time for the flanking forces and shuffle my infantry back. The Red Caps and their supporting detatchments take a deep breath and get ready for the rush!

My Knights wheel to face a possible charge from the marauders.

On the right flank the Chaos Knights and Gryphs continue to rip each others faces off. Lee's Giant eye's up a charge.

I have one last chance to finish off the Giant before it pitches in . . . . . Of course both cannons fail miserably!

In the centre it's a Mexican stand-off.

And in crashes the Giant.

In a bid to stop the Marauders from charging my Knights I cast 'flame cage' on them. Unfortunately (for Lee) the Marauders are frenzied and charge out of the cage causing every one of them the take a strength silly hit!

Opps!!!

Only four of the Marauders survive the spell and attack the Knights. Now thats a magic round!!

Over on the right the Chaos Giant swings the balance and CRUSHES one of the Gryphs!

It's all too much for his colleges and they bolt for the back table edge.

My Cannon has an opportunity to finish off the Gaint . . . . and fails to hit or cause minimal wounds (AGAIN!).

On my left the tense stand off continues. I have the horrible feeling when the storm breaks it is going to be devastating!

The 'Boom town rats' and Bertha have the opportunity to swing the battle by enfilading Lee's entire left flank . . . . . Of course the cannon misfires and the crew start to have a row over who's fault it is.

On my right I finally bring my cannon to bear and blast away at the approaching Giant. . . . .

. . . Which finally disappears in a puff of smoke!

My Cannon crew let out a deep sigh of relief  . . . . .when . . . . .

"Thank fuck for that!"

. . . . The surviving Chaos Knights come charging out of the smoke and crash into the cannon crew!!

"BollORKS!!"

In the centre my Knights finally see off the surviving Marauders and wheel to ride to the rescue of my Infantry.

My cannon crew continue to be useless!

Here comes the pain!!

Lee's chariot smashes through my thin red line of Hand Gunners and over runs into my level 4 wizard!

Then Lee's Jugganaughts and Chaos hounds utterly destroy my militia!

My cannon crew miss all this as they are still busy arguing!

And true to form Lee's Chaos Knights smash my other cannon to splinters!

With my 'Redcaps' decimated and my Knights too far away to get a charge in this turn I decide to sound the retreat and flee the field giving Lee the well deserved victory!!

I still need to work out the best way to play Empire in the bigger games. At 750 to 1250 points my forces and tactics were usually spot on, but in the bigger games my opponents have the forces available to bog down my forces which costs me the initiative!

It does not help only getting 4 games of WHF in this year. Will need to make a concerted effort next year to get more games in and tweak this force into a more competitive force.