Another Sun rises

Tuesday night's club game at the Crazy Squirrel was another Warmaster samurai game. This time, the scenario was a take off from one of the Mongol invasions of Japan. As Brent did not have any mongols, he substituted Orcs and Goblins. I, again, played the part of the Samurai, with Craig's clan as an ally, against Ron and Neils rampaging greenskins.

 This is the city...erm, battlefield. To the left, the oncoming psychotic fungi, having just arrived by boat. On the right, the honorable and righteous defenders of their homeland, having prepared a defensive position whilst the enemy was coming ashore.

 Turn one, Ron's force in the middle left failed most of its command rolls (a series of 11s) which boded ill for Ron the whole night. In my opinion, the this turn determined the outcome of the game.

Neil's mushroom lovers were mire successful in advancing on our lines. Neil's southern most command is in the center of frame, slightly shaped like an upside-down "L". My own troops are in frame at the lower right, with Craig's at the upper left.

 Unfortunately, the photo for the next greenie move did not turn out, but we do see my counter-move. Neil had advanced two archer units, with 30mm range, close enough to plink away at a unit of Craig's teppo leaving Craig to just sit and take the incoming fire. Neil accompanied these pesky troops with a sub-general. Oh, did I happen to mention that the invaders had more points than us as well has having seven (!) generals to our four!!

BUT, the photo above shows what happened to that general and those archers. My elite cavalry, sensing an opportunity, charged from behind our defensive lines and smashed into the archers. Unfortunately, I did not know (as the unit's abilities had changed from the last game) that I now hit on 3's and not 4's. Without this knowledge, my rolls did less than stellar damage, where I won the fight, but lost a stand...followed by a second round, where I lost another stand. However, I eliminated one unit of archers, seriously hurt the other...and killed that sub-general.

 My cavalry have consolidated their position. Here's what the table looked like at the beginning of the next greenie turn.

 And here it is after they finished moving. Notice the line of troops in front of my cavalry? Yes, they are ALL missile troops.

 Whose fire left my CinC all alone...and nearly dead (I had 1 hit remaining after all their fire, only to be recovered after shooting was done).

Here's Neil's oncoming horde. It looks disorganized, and it was, but that didn't matter as the lead unit was a large grouping of Ogres. No, not the nice Ogres from certain Hollywood movies. No, these were mean, nasty, smelly, and utterly ferocious ogres...and they swung deadly blades.

 The ogres crashed into Craig's line of troops, hitting a unit of teppo supported by ashigaru, that support was critical because the teppo were nearly eliminated, but due to support, Craig won the round of combat and chose (wisely!) not to follow up.

 Like a slow, unstoppable wave, the greenskins continue to advance.

Not much of a shot, but it does show the lynchpin between Craig's troops and my own. The unit in the valley, just below that grey rock, is Craig's unit, with the troops just down from it being my own. Those greenskins to the left are more archers...sigh.

 Ron's giants and greenies finally got stuck in.Yet, Neil's army is getting it's far flank turned by Craig's cavalry and two units of ashigaru, but not before the ogres hit Craig again, wiping out two units.

 Notice, there were three giants in the previous pic, but now their are two. I did five hits against the giant at the bottom of the previous frame, which then rolled higher than its basic move on five dice...meaning it ran off the battlefield.

 However, Ron got a big unit of orcs into my lines, pushing me back, nearly breaking open a hole. This pic is the AFTER, as I had lost 4 stands and Ron about 15 at this point. My household elite infantry are just visible at the bottom of the frame and the orc general that barely survived is on the far left (generals were on round bases). The CinC casualty had been picked up by this point.

Neil's army, turning to face the flanking troops...and the ogres, minus a single stand, have chewed through almost four units on their own. Craig's general (our overall commander) was down to a single hit...with Neil throwing every last goblin against it, but the generals survived...much to Craig's and my relief.

I thought I had taken a few more photos, but they are not on my camera (shrug!), but the final turn of the game saw me counter-attacking Ron's troops, and throwing them back out of my lines. I took one general down to a single hit, wiped out three units of orcs, and killed their CinC, ending the game with a narrow victory for our side.

I felt bad for Ron as his first two turns saw very little movement from his army and then his saving throws were practically all whiffed in the two final turns. I, myself, was only able to move two units the entire game, from command rolls, the rest of the moves were from initiative only. Both Ron and I rolled a fair amount of 11s all game.

This is the second game in a week where Neil came within one wound of killing our CinC and winning the game for his side, but he continues to be robbed of that victory. <grin>