Sorry it's taken me a little while to get around to this, but the wait is over. Time for the second part of my adventure at Where Sleeping Gods Lie...
After a lovely cooked breakfast thanks to the folks at the Crossways Guest House (one of whom even asked to look at my models when I told him why I was in town), I headed back to Triple Helix for the second day's gaming. While the others kicked off the day with bacon sandwiches, I took the opportunity to refresh the plan I'd hatched with Andres the previous day.
Knowing that the first game of the day would be a doubles match, we thought that we could exploit a lot of in-faction synergy between his eMorghoul list and my pMakeda list. My Paingivers could benefit from eMorghoul's Elite Cadre (thus gaining Perfect Balance), whilst I could hand out Savagery to choice targets such as Molik Karn or the Lord Assassin himself. With this in mind, we decided to hire ourselves out as a mercenary team, rather than as individuals. The Alliance of Light took us up on the offer, and sent Morghoul and Makeda to secure the port at Ferryhead, which it now transpired was the key to reaching the lost city of Edethor. They met with stern resistance in the form of a Khadoran alliance between eVlad and pSorscha.
The best part about this game was getting to play on Neil and Smithy's beautiful port table. The downside, however, was the practicality of having to play with four armies in its narrow streets. Early on, it became clear that that key to winning would be to control the street in front of the main harbour building, so we threw out some Bloodrunners as chaff to slow down the advance of the Khadoran 'jacks. Some campaign-specific rules allowed Andres to ambush with his Nihilators, covering the other main street. After the second turn, we had flooded the crucial street with Skorne, included Defenders' Warded Arcuarii, and used Makeda's feat to make sure that they would all be coming back next turn (or so we thought). The way things were set up, the Khadorans needed to clear out the Arcuarii to be able to trample their 'jacks through the Bloodrunners. It was a pretty tall order, but Andres and I watched in horror as some lethally-effecting bombard and mortar shells rained down on the Arcuarii wiping them out to a Skorne. The trampling 'jacks made short work of the Bloodrunners, and all of a sudden there were two heavies controlling the street! At this point, we were in danger of running out of time to seal a victory, so we decided to make a big play to clear out both 'jacks and claim a win by scenario. Although we had a great plan (involving a Ghostly Molik Karn advancing 13" (Savagery plus Rush) through a building and behind the Khadoran heavies, dealing a disappointingly small amount of damage to one of them. I flung my enraged Titan at it to finish it off, then it was Andres' turn. All he had to do was slam the other 'jack about 4" back to get it out of the control zone, and we had it. His Titan went for it, and with Grand Slam needed anything but a one. You can imagine what happened next. Suffice it to say that the game ended as a draw.
It was an interesting game, and threw up some interesting combos for team Skorne, but we agreed with our opponents, Mike and Chris, that it was just too cramped to play such a big game on. Maybe next time we'll meet on a better table, guys!
As it turned out, Chris and I did meet on a better table in the very next game. Having reached a stalemate in Ferryhead, both the Khadorans and the Skorne managed to commandeer ships and travel to Edethor. No sooner had they disembarked than battle broke out once more. Chris's eVlad list looked something like this:
Vladimir Tzepsci, Dark Champion
- Destroyer
- Decimator
3 Shocktroopers
6 Winterguard Riflemen
4 Widowmakers
Not a high-power eVlad list, but still one that was likely to give my Makeda list trouble. So much heavy armour, and we all know how hard Vlad is to kill. The game started badly as concentrated fire from the Khadoran force took out my Savage, and threatened to do the same to my Titan the following turn. The Widowmakers were ensconced in some ruins and whittling down my infantry, and the 'jacks were making for the control zone. Vlad was just chilling out in the backfield for all I could see, and why not? His army had it covered. As the game went on, Chris showed his inexperience, and I got away with some cheeky Drags on the Shocktroopers with my Arcuarii, took out most of the Decimator with my Titan, and even drop a bit combined ranged attack on Vlad, knocking off about half his health. Makeda, deciding to distance herself from the main part of the Khadoran gunline, went off to butcher the Winterguard, while the Arcuarii finished the Decimator. By the last turn of the game, I only had one Arcuarius, Makeda and the Razorworm left, looking at Vlad, a largely intact Destroyer, and one Widowmaker blocking the Arcuarius' charge on Vlad. My desperate attempt to take out the Widowmaker with a spell just about worked, freeing up the Arcuarius to charge, but he missed Vlad, and that was that. Makeda somehow died to a viciously accurate bombard shell, but the game was in the bag for Chris on control points anyway.
Again, this was another good game, and taught me a good lesson. No matter how bad the matchup may be, mistakes by your opponent can let you in with all manner of tricks. Although I would have needed a bit of luck, there were times when I could have swung the game. Given the unbalanced forces at the start of the game, and the bad matchup for my force, the result was actually tied on VPs before Makeda caught the bombard shell!
With that defeat, and Makeda incapacitated, Morghoul (now back in his Master Tormentor outfit) decided to escape from Edethor after sensing a building storm that was beyond his powers to resist. Whilst trying to escape, his path was blocked by the Cygnaran sniper Kara Sloan, played by Jason. His list was something like
Kara Sloan
- Triumph
- Charger
Min Trenchers
Not a nice matchup for Morghoul. I was going to have to rely on speed to carry this one. Thankfully, Jason made a bit of a hash of his first turn, and I somehow had a Savage in charge range of both 'jacks. After piling on the buffs, it barrelled in and wrecked the charger. Meanwhile, Morghoul and the Master Tormentor made short work of the trenchers. Taking care to keep Morghoul out of Kara's crosshairs, I didn't really give Jason any options. Victory actually came when Kara risked a free strike to get away from my Brute, but it had the measure of her. This would have been a victory to the Wolves, but at this point Nik came by with a nice big sack of chocolate coins, and somehow Morghoul decided to stay his Brute's hand. Weighed down by the weight of (chocolate) gold, the Skorne withdrew from Edethor to head back to their lands.
Once all of the games were done and dusted, the organisers gave us an epilogue to the campaign. This was rather short and sweet, along the lines of 'Alliance won, Baldur found the main temple complex supposed to house the remains of Nyrro, but found nothing'. Prizes were handed out to the winning Alliance players, the richest Mercenary (Jon and his lovely pirates), the most bloodthirsty warcaster (Kristian), the 'most kicked' warlock (Smithy) and the 'prettiest army' -- mine! There had been a lot of kind words said about my Skorne all weekend, but I thought that Jon might have taken the honours with his pirates, so it was a nice surprise to win. The prize, a KR multicase, was wonderfully generous. Perhaps the hosts had noticed the makeshift cardboard case I was using as a stop-gap until I could find a convenient new case! As it turns out, the KR case is perfect for my Skorne. Thank you to all involved in that!
And that, as they say, is that. I packed up my things, said my goodbyes to the guys, and headed for home. Where Sleeping Gods Lie was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend, and the organisers/narrators (Daniel, Richard Neil, and John) ran a tight ship. The venue (Triple Helix Wargames in Westbury) was a nice, bright, airy space, and the tables had a generous range of terrain. The refreshments supplied by owner Steve and his glamourous assistant (/wife?) were spot on, too! My thanks again to everyone involved with the weekend. I'm sure I'll be back for more again next year!
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