Game 1 – The Northern Union (Att) 0 vs Alan’s Aborigines (Def) 48

I drew Alan Saunders in my first game. I thought this was rather unfair. I’m not a morning person and I hadn’t woken up yet despite the drive down from Yorkshire. My notes tell me I sent most of my army up onto a hill in front of me with my right flank anchored on some impassable going. A hero and a couple of beasts were out on the right to threaten his flank.

Then I allowed myself to be convinced by the whisperings of the “you’re the attacker, you must advance” fairy. Alan’s god arrived, killed my hero and then killed St Helen whose flank was no longer protected by the impassable going. Game over. I would have to remember gods were lethal against this army.

Game 2 – The Northern Union (Att) 46 vs Mike Dance’s Napoleonics with added Wolves (Def) 2

Mike’s army had three heroes, and me without a magician to call my own. I advanced cautiously to see what would develop. What developed was an advance towards my right by Mike’s four shooters and two beasts while the heroes advanced cautiously in the centre.

With Mike’s right flank a bit in the air (albeit composed entirely of heroes), I decided to threaten a move against his stronghold so sent forward my beasts in a left hook. The Castleford Tigers led the way through a large patch of bad going. With a little luck on the PIP dice I was able to get round to the stronghold while the rest of my army kept the heroes busy. A first attempt at taking the stronghold ended when the dice came up a tie. Before I could try again, Mike’s hero general, double overlapped due to previous unlucky die rolling, scored a 1 in combat and was stamped into the dust by Huddersfield the Giant.

Game 3 – The Northern Union (Def) 48 vs Watership Down (Att) 0

Richard Tyson had picked Tony Horobin’s bunnies from the pool and we both spent an amusing few minutes trying to work out what was what. For those of you who haven’t seen them, Tony’s bunnies are each about 5mm long. At times it was hard to tell which way elements were facing!

Despite the odd match-up this turned into a pretty conventional battle with two long battle lines facing each other. Richard’s seagull dragon appeared and threatened my right flank. Fortunately I managed to Barker it with a warband and get my hero in to kill it. I think this was largely because Richard got unlucky with his PIP roll. This trend was to continue.

Basically, all I remember is that with reasonable match-ups along the battle line, I rolled superbly and Richard had obviously failed to placate the dice demons. A few mismatched die rolls later I had taken out 12AP.

Game 4 – The Northern Union (Def) 8 vs The Pasta People of T’Esco (Att) 40

Another wonderful HOTT match-up. Tim Sharrock’s pasta shapes army advanced on my hilltop position. A behemoth was moving towards my left and three knights towards my right. In a moment of madness I decided I didn’t fancy my beasts against the behemoth and moved them across the front of my army to oppose the knights. “Brave move” said Tim then pointed out that mounted troops kill beasts. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! As is happened, Tim rolled poorly for PIPs and I managed to extricate two of the beasts but eventually he flanked my line and rolled me up for the loss of a behemoth and a couple of knights (I think).

Game 5 – The Northern Union (Att) 24 vs Ice Age Dinosaurs (Def) 24

On this occasion James Ewins’s dinosaurs (encased in resin ice blocks) manoeuvred (against biological probability) under the able control of Ty Grover-Jones. On a board dominated by bad going paddy fields (!) Ty deployed in three groups of three each centred on a behemoth.

We manoeuvred for some time as I tried to get Ty to reinforce his flanks at the expense of his centre. In the end I drove forward my heavy stuff to try and break through in the middle but when we ran out of time all we had done was trade a couple of losses each.

Still, a most enjoyable game and a most gentlemanly and pleasant opponent (as indeed were all his predecessors).

Game 6 – Roskoff’s Expedition (Def) 26 vs Ian Walkley’s High Elves (Att) 22

Ian’s standing army was in 25mm so I had to choose a pool army. I decided to go with Richard Tyson’s Darkest Africa chaps. These included thirteen hordes, five shooters (including the general) and a lurker.

I grabbed a few large terrain features and plonked them down. After dicing for direction of attack my deployment zone went: one element wide gap, impassable lake, gap about three elements wide, bad going, one element wide gap.

I didn’t see this army as one with which I could easily take the initiative; Ian’s mix of blades, shooters, spears and hero looked way too rich for me. So I sent a horde of hordes forward to slow him down, put some of my shooters in the bad going and kept a couple, including the general, as reserve.

I suspect Ian was still a little hung over from the day before (that hour at the Rugby Club in the afternoon had really hit hard). He didn’t really press his attack hard enough. I lost a few hordes but managed to keep cycling most of them back. As the slimy slug of time crawled up the dining table leg of fate, Ian launched a belated attack but only succeeded in losing a hero to shooters in bad going. Game drawn, but again most enjoyable. I hope Ian’s headache was not too severe.

Game 7 – The Northern Union (Att) 2 vs George Clarke’s Fantasy Egyptians (Def) 46

You know how I said gods were lethal to this army? Well they are. Especially when they show up on turn 2 and never go away! I got three Barkers on the god but even so it was too fast for my hero to catch it. George basically pulled my army to bits and stamped on the debris. Can’t, on the whole, say I enjoyed this one.

Game 8 – The Northern Union (Att) 46 vs Alan Millicheap’s Pirates (Def) 2

A tactically interesting game, this one. Alan’s Pirates army has hero General, two artillery, three shooters and four warbands. This gave me a few worries – artillery quick kills heroe, warbands quick kill blades and clerics, and he obviously had a lot of firepower for me to worry about.

Fortunately, Alan’s deployment had a flaw – his stronghold lay at the end of a long ridge of bad going which cut his artillery off from his right flank completely. The battle therefore evolved into my keeping him busy - beasts threatening his left flank, a prolonged back and forth melee between my warbands and some of his, and my blades and behemoth manoeuvring to Barker his right flank shooters while my hero made a dash round the ridge and went for the stronghold.

In the end I didn’t quite make it to the Stronghold. With Bradford the Bullman just forty paces away, the game ended. I think I pushed back his hero general with someone on his flank but I’m not entirely sure. Either way Alan was a charming opponent and we had an enjoyable chat about the game and other inconsequential stuff.

Overall it was a most enjoyable couple of days. The new venue is every bit as good as the old and Steve is to be congratulated on putting together an excellent event. See you all next year!

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