Game 3 - Battalion 3000pts Meeting Encounter verses Deamons of Chaos.
So played diagonally across the table, I won the roll and select table side and start rolling to see if any of my forces are delayed - manage to keep all my units together. I deploy deep 24" from his deployment line (even though we can deploy as close as 12" from each other), I want to get a bit of shooting in.
My opponent starts rolling for his army, his deployed force turns out to be
Herald of Nurgle on Palaquin
Herald of Nurgle Battle Standard Bearer
36 stong Plague Bearer Horde
20 strong Daemonettes
5 Seekers of Slaanesh
2 x 2 Fiends of Slaanesh
3 Flamers of Tzeentch
The Masque
In reserve he has:
Keeper of Secrets lvl 4
19 Plague Bearers
3 Flamers of Tzeentch
So he deploys mostly on my left flank, planning to hit it hard and rollup my flank, while holding the centre with his Plague Bearer Horde
I get first turn (he failed to steal on a 6), I turn my Steam Tanks on his fast moving units - Seekers and Fiends and pound them a little, while flanking with my Pistoliers.
He advances fast on the flank, getting ready to flank my units.
Then I pull a nasty trick, as the Steam Tanks are random move, they pivot and then move 3d6 with 3 steam points - I pivot two Steam Tanks to engage the Seekers and Fiends, I roll high for the Seekers but fail to reach the Fiends but end 1" away.
Seekers survive my impact hits with a tremendous number of passed Deamonic saves. But in his turn he can't penetrate my hull.
Meanwhile the Keeper of Secrets walks on (10" I don't call that walking!!!), he tries to make my Venerable Steam Tank Stupid as the Masque has reduced its Leadership by 3, I burn my dispel scroll.
My turn I target the Keeper of Secrets and hit it with one cannonball for 3 wounds but the other drops short and the other over shoots with a 10" over estimate.
Meanwhile I Flame Cage his Plague Bearer Horde who are ready to charge next turn into my Halberdiers.
Chaos Move more units to be ready to attack, Deamonettes and Keeper in the front, with the Fiends in the flank. Magic dice come up a total of 3, so a very quick phase.
On the other hand I get a 12 with the help of a channel. I place Flame cage on the Daemonettes while moving a sacrificial Handgunner unit to deflect the charge of the Plague Bearers. The Steam Tanks finish grinding some Flamers and the Seekers.
Chaos turn 4, Daemonettes charge but fail distance while loosing half their number to the Flame Cage, this leaves the Keeper of Secrets in my front and the single Fiend in my Flank. As combat starts I issue a challenge with my Halberdier Champion, which he declines until I point out that the Keeper of Secrets has no rear rank to move to?
So he has to accept, 5 wounds later my champion is small shreds of bloody meat, meanwhile the Fiend has killed a couple more, note The Masque has reduced my
Ld by 2 points while the BSB has the standard that also reduces LD and the Herald has the ability to also reduce LD by 1. So having lost combat, I'm Steadfast on LD9 - 4, so need to roll 5 or less with BSB reroll.
I roll a 2 and a 4, failed till I remember that Empire Generals roll 3d6 taking two lowest just like Lizardmen, I roll a third dice and get a 3 - so succeed on a 5
My turn, a Steam Tank rolls through a Wood (taking 5 wounds) but its impact hits kill the Fiend, while my Warrior Priest challenges the Keeper of Secrets, which goes first but only manages 2 wounds, the Warrior Priest Armour of Destiny saves one, then combat resolution means I win by 6, he fails his LD test even with a BSB reroll and I pop the Deamon.
Meanwhile the Daemonettes are rolled over by another Steam Tank.
My opponent knows he needs to kill my Halberdier Horde to stan any chance of winning the game, so in goes the Plague Bearer Horde, Masque drops my LD by 3, so I'm on -5 LD, I fail my Fear test....
My attacks fail to hit giving me just 1 dead Plague Bearer, his attacks kill 25 Halberdiers - he wins the combat, know normally I'd be down to a double '1' to stay, but my General has the Crown of Command so Stubborn LD tet of 4 or less
First roll of 3d6 nets me a 6 failed, so BSB reroll which gets me a 1, 2 & 6, so I pass on 3
Yay - the look on my opponents face as he sees success turn to failure was heartbreaking.
My final turn, 2 Steam Tanks charge the flanks of the Plague Bearers, while my Wizard gets Flaming Sword of Rhuin off, plus the Warrior Priest gets both reroll to wound and 5+ ward save.
In the combat my Steam Tanks manage 22 impact hits which killed 14 Plague Bearers, my Halberdiers account for another 8.
To say the least he was down to double '1's to stay - which he failed massively on the reroll.
At this point he concedes the game having killed 2 units of Pistoliers and a Handgunner Detachment of 10 (plus 25+ Halberdiers) while loosing majority of his army.
Game 3 - Win for the Engineers, I'd not had to use my strategy which had been to return a lost unit to the game in reserve (was planning on bringing back a lost Steam Tank), so win gave me 3 Campaign Points.
So at this point I was running joint 1st on the Leader Board with the Zombie Cannibals.
So off to Premier Inn for some rest and back for more on Day 2 - Secret Mission and Faction Objectives.