We did not have to set out as early as Alan, but I think that we had more to pack. We set off shortly after 8am, and arrived in time to help set up, and have a quick look at Jez's spreadsheets.

My army this time was designed after facing "Alan made me do it" on its home terrain at Berkeley. die Käseratten von Ratburg consist of six shooters, including the general, two airboats, two lurkers (one water, and one land) and a hero: the White Squeakernel. My aim was to use lots of cottage-cheese marshes (I made twenty four of them) with a river and a road available as well, and then squash the enemy between the shooters and the airboats. Things did not quite follow the plan....

Game #1: die Käseratten attacked Alan Saunders' "Knights of Simba"

You have already seen Alan's account of this battle. I had heard beasts described as the bane of shooters, but had never seen it happen. My shooter general was very lucky to survive long enough for the White Squeakernel, assisted by the two airboats, to take Simba's stronghold. I was also impressed with how well a hero could take on beasts, even when the beasts were in bad going.

I think this was the first time I had ever captured a stronghold - I enjoyed the game greatly, and not just because it was my first victory over Alan!

I won 41:7, putting me in 5th position.

Game #2: die Käseratten defended against Brian Pierpoint

I cannot remember the name of Brian's army - but it had a cleric general, an aerial hero, several shooters and several knights.

I defended, and set up diagonal road and river, with a number of marshes along both sides of the river. Brian advanced in a block down one side, while I slowly moved my shooters to line the river bank. Foolishly I sent the two airboats across the river, hoping to get at the cleric general, but lost one to the Angel (aerial hero), and spent more pips pulling the other one back.

The angel then swept down and across the river, and headed towards the strong-hold, while Brian's shooters doubled and killed one of my shooters. My remaining airboat and the hero tried to engage the aerial hero, but both failed, and died (I can't quite remember, but the hero may even have been picked off by bowfire across the river while passing throgh a swamp).

So, in summary, I got totally bogged down in my own cheesy terrain, and lost 48:0, leaving me in 11th place.

Game #3: die Käseratten vs Ian Edwards Orcs

I think I defended, but I am not now sure. Ian's Orcs included two impressive scorpion behemoths, an artillery, and lots of hordes (six I think), alongside a couple of beasts.

The hordes died like orcs - I think I killed about a dozen: shooters and lurkers are good at doubling them in the bad going - but they kept on coming back.

My hero, with the help of a couple of shooters, dealt with the bests on one flank, while the rest of the shooters advanced cautiously through the hordes, and managed to kill one of the behemoths.

For several bounds we had a situation where I was shooting at the remaining behemoth, which could not recoil due to my airboat, while Ian's artillery shot at my airboat, which could not recoil because of said behemoth. Eventually my hero arrived, and I got the shooters into position and attacked the behemoth and artillery paw to hand - with the behemoth flanked....

I won 42:6, moving me up into 8th position.

Game #4: the Eaters of the Lotus defended against George Clarke's Cereal Killers.

I used my Berkeley standing army (two magicians, a god, three beasts, two blades and two mixed lurkers) against George's pair of heros, a magician, a beast, two riders, two shooters and a pair of mixed lurkers.

My terrain included a temple garden, the Yellow River, a bamboo forest and a couple of large paddy fields.

This was an unusual battle with the attacker able to deploy a water lurker, indeed the two water-lurkers clashed in a paddy field, but this was really a battle of magicians.

George attempted a magical strike against my magician general, but rolled a one, and would have been frogged, apart from the fact that we doubled and therefore destroyed. George's non-general hero then advanced, with beast and rider support down on my stronghold. My beasts tried to intervene but died quickly, I then, however, managed to bespell the hero. Unfortunately, we could not accurately remember, many bounds later, whether he was doubled and destroyed, or merely ensorcelled. George believed that he had been destroyed, and so did not bring him back when he eventually rolled six pips (I never did roll six, and the Thing with 1000 tongues never appeared).

Then for, a fair number of bounds, George was sitting on AP lost (hero, magician and two lurkers destroyed) and I was on eight (three beasts and two lurkers, though one of the latter was only fled). George had several attempts at the stronghold with a beast and a rider with a 1-in-6 chance of success, while I tried to double the beast with magic, or a shooters with a blade, but lost the blade in the process.

Eventually, George started bringing his hero general up, while his shooters pushed my magician general back into the bamboo. I tried bespelling his hero general with a semi-frogged sorcerer - which could have ended the game either way, and succeeded. Game over and packed away, 38:10

But.... George realised later... we had doubled the 40mm range of magic twice, and the hero general had been ensorcelled from well out of range :(. It was too late to do anything about it - I had already completed my next game, but it was an unfortunate end to an exciting game. Next time I will make sure that I have a proper pace-ruler for each scale I am using.

Had we continued, it could still have been anyone's game, George was still attacking my stronghold at low odds (1/6), but persistently, while I similarly had low-odds chances to double a shooter or beast (1/9 with one magician, 1/4 with both), or maybe the god would have appeared....

So, by mistake, I won 38:10, moving me up to 4th place, but 52 points behind Benedict, so out of contention for the win.

Game #5: die Käseratten attacked Tony Horrobin's beautiful Snow Queen army.

After the marathon game four, this game was quite short. I advanced up my left side of the board, with the airboats leading, and hoping to overcome the beasts and behemoths and attack the stronghold. Tony used a horde to block the airboats from getting behind the behemoths, and sent some beasts round the other flank to attack the shooters.

I moved the White Squeakernel over to confront the beasts, and the Snow Queen came forward on her sleigh to attempt to ensorcell him, but rolled a one. The White Squeakernel then moved fowards, and on a second bound attacked the queen - whose horde supporter was a few millimetres too far back to help. Both elements were vulnerable to quick kills, but my hero was not the general, and was thus expendable - the Snow queen was, and therefore was not.... and I rolled higher: game over 48:0.

So thanks, everyone for some exciting games - the cheesy army did well - though the cheesy terrain did not help much, and it was the hero who did most of the winning, and not the massed shooters at all.

I look forward to seeing you all at the next tournament... but I don't expect to do as well again!

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