A whole lot of blood

Well this turn became a blood bath with 3 massacres!

First up was the clash between Toby and Rob. The Orcs and Goblins lined up, with some new additions to their ranks. The Empire lined up opposite, in a slightly straighter line and with less infighting.

The game started and the Orc battle plan was, as usual, promptly forgotten as some units charged ahead and others stood around fighting amongst themselves. The Empire army proceeded to shoot lots at the oncoming green horde. This theme was to continue for the next 6 turns.

Highlights included misfire war machines (not uncommon when fielding as many as Rob had) and the amount of time several key Orc units hid behind a forest. The fanatics, as usual provided comedy moments, not least two falling short of the Empire line and then heading back to their own lines.

With a massacre of his boys, Warlord Toby was heard to mutter after the battle,

“More zogging squigs! That’s the key to this game…”

On another battlefield, several miles away, the Skaven (Chris) and High Elves (Jon) meet to do battle.

Chris had decided to bring the biggest unit of Skaven ever (or was it two units jammed together, no one could ever tell), whilst the High Elves lined up with spears gleaming and… hold on some shadow infiltrators in front of the Skaven?

Jon had found the funds to recruit some Shadow Warriors to his cause, who bravely set up in front of the Doomwheel. Chris’s eyes lit up and with an evil cackle his Doomwheel rolled towards them… until it got to the top of the cliff, realised it was a bit steep and looked for another way down.

With a lot of fancy manoeuvring/luck the Elves were left in possession of the board and a large pile of Skaven corpse. Rat kebab anyone?

The final battle saw Jon facing off against the bloated monstrosity that is Chaos Lord Jeff.

The High Elves deployed as a force of 90% cavalry, hoping to take the battle to the Chaos horde. The Chaos forces deployed in a nice long line along with a friendly giant.

The battle saw a lot of manoeuvring, a lot of flee reactions and avoidance of charge arcs. Having ploughed through a unit of marauders (read sacrificial lambs), a unit of Silverhelms and an Elven chariot found themselves behind enemy lines. Fearing they may be lost, the friendly giant decided to offer them some advice… such as don’t stand still whilst a giant jumps up and down on you!

The rest of the battle went along similar lines, with the High Elf force encircled and smashed between two lines of Chaos troops. More glory to the dice gods of Chaos!

So onto empire building and new challenges for all.

The only one is an Orc??

Much to the disgust of all involved, the Orcs lead by Warlord Toby managed to be the last men/orcoids standing after the King of the Hill battle.

The Skaven and Orc joined forces to get revenge on the Empire by wiping out the unit in one round of fighting and running away.

In the mean time, the forces of Chaos moved in on the High Elves, who opted to tactically withdraw, shooting as they went.  This was to little avail and saw them chased out of the competition.

The Skaven and Orc  alliance then spent several turns chasing the Chaos Marauders around the board, before eventually the Skaven forced them off the table.  Sadly this left the Skaven in a bad position, and in an ironic twist saw them stabbed in the back by their ex-allies.

The Orcs claimed the day and the treasure!