Blood in the Badlands. Week 14. The Empire strikes back.

With only two games to go before the conclusion of the Blood in the Badlands campaign Phil and I decided to have a throw down despite none of our armies contesting any tiles.

Because of this Phil decided to field an Empire army so he could get his eye in with them before the next campaign kicks off in earnest.

With Lano and Lee fighting it out for a tile of the Badlands, Phil and I were relegated to the 4'x4' table.

1500 points are plonked on the table.

Turn one and my Ogres advance under the cover of the tower towards the Empire 'Hell blaster'.

With the advantage of longer range my Ironblaster takes a pot shot at the 'Hell Blaster'. It misses the blaster itself but the crew are forced to 'look out sir' the hit on the Empire Engineer!

Second turn sees the Ogres crest the tower into the teeth of the Empire fire power.

Thankfully my Ironblaster now has it's eye in and blasts the hell cannon to kingdom come!

The Leadbelchers also shread the fast approaching Imperial Knights!

Seeking revenge the Empire Knights come crashing into the Ironblaster!

It's a close run thing but the Knights do enough to win the combat and the Iron Blaster is cut down as it turns to flee!

My battle bus destroys the Imperial Crossbows on the left flank, unfortunately their blood lust  means they fail to restrain and this gives the Empire some breathing space.

Over on my right the Leadbelchers fail to 'swift reform' in order to blast away at the remaining Knights and have to content themselves with gunning down some Imperial Crossbows to their fore.

This allows the knights to reform and come crashing into the Leadbelchers rear!

Phil completely wrong foots me when he commits his Crossbow men against my Ogres in melee.

What I fail to spot is that this will now allow his Swordmen to charge into this combat!

With the Imperial Wizard commited to the combat my butcher gobbles down the 'Hell Heart' and the miscast completely stifles the Empire magic phase.

Back on the right flank the Imperial Knights crash through my Leadbelchers and over run into my Gnobblars!

Back on the left flank my Ogres cause absolute carnage but  . . . . . .

I forget the human Swordmen  are flying a 'Griffon Banner' which doubles any rank bonuses the unit has!

This means my Ogres lose the combat and are forced to flee.

 The chasing Swordsmen are an inch short in their pursuit!

Somehow my Gnobblars pull down one of the paladins of the Imperial cavalry . . . Moral victory is mine if nothing else!

Once again the Swordsmen charge my fleeing Ogres and once again my Ogres evade pursuit by an inch!

It's only after the game we discovered a unit flying the Griffon Banner are not allowed to pursue fleeing eneny units!

My Ogres manage to finally reform and turn to face their pursuers.

Once again they fail to cause enough wounds to counter the boosted rank bonus of the Swordmen and I decide to declaire the game there leaving Phil the rightful victor.

Over on the other table the battle between Lano and Lee was another knife edged encounter with Lano using Eleven magic to full effect to counter the Ork hordes!

Lee claimed the moral victory when his Trolls did what they were told and destroyed the Elven Sea guard with their poxy mage!!

There were high fives all round when he pulled that off!

Once again the post game rolls proved just as entertaining as the battles themselves when several tiles changed hands and Phil's Skaven are reduced to a single army!

Lano also managed to have an army desert him!

This left Lee and I in a strong postion to invade their weakened lands for the penultimate game before the grand final!