Test of Honour Campaign two: Games 1 and 2

After starting off a campaign with Simon such is the enthusiasm for ToH at the moment I started another one with Gary! Again I decided to use the typical force rather than my Rogues and Ruffians, though some of them may appear later on in the campaign.

As last time the first game has a single Hero with a few followers battling it out for sumpremacy:

My Ashigaru rush ahead of their somewhat skulking Hero:

Gary's Hero moves up to engage them:

My Hero makes up for lost time:

Spears thrust to and fro:

Gary's Hero is knocked down but fights on:

My Hero is unable to finish off the enemy Ashigaru:

First man down! My Archer shoots Gary's:

Gary's Hero is subdued and captured giving me the win:

After a severe beating Gary's Hero is released to try to take his revenge in Game 2. This time my Clan is defending the outpost:

The first action sees my off table Companion arrive quickly and immediately try to slow down the enemies advance:

He quickly cuts down a lone Ashigaru spearman:

Meanwhile Gary's Companion finishes off one of my Ashigaru forcing the others to flee:

My companion moves on to the Teppu men:

Unfortunately he gets the worst of the fight and is clubbed down:

Meanwhile a savage battle is developing for control of the three objectives:

Gary's Clan are forced back:

They quickly regroup and return to the fight:

My Hero is knocked down resulting in three Ashigaru bowmen heroically holding off the enemy hordes:

One of the bowmen is down but my Hero is back on his feet and heading to the fight again:

The game lasts five turns and at the end after a tense last move I hold one objective while the other two are contested holding on for the win:

Both games were very close and the second one I thought my guys would fail to hold on in the last turn. One good thing about ToH is that as the campaign progresses the characters can evolve so already there is a bit of a difference between the two forces which should make future games more interesting.

The next game I'll be playing is games 3 and 4 with Simon so more ToH to come!

Bag the Hun Japanese v Australian

Another run out for Bag the Hun with my Japanese taking on Jerry and Dave's Australians. I had four Zeros and four Jacks while Jerry had four Beaufighters, Dave had four Kittyhawks and there were six Hudson bombers to escort.

I'd also made some rather crude paper templates in an attempt to speed up the game when attempting to do anything other than fly in a straight line!

The Japanese approach:

Kittyhawks race to intercept:

Jacks head for the bombers while the Zeros attempt to hold off the Australian fighters:

Beaufighters chase a pair of Zeros:

Zeros approach the bombers from either side:

One of the Jacks explodes and another is critically damaged:

A Zero is shot down at long range by a Beaufighter. At this stage the Japanese had not managed to get off a single shot!

At last a success for the Japanese, the remaining Zero brings down a Hudson:

The Hudsons reach their target minus another one shot down by a Zero:

Something of a fight-back by the Japanese as a head on attack by a Jack causes critical instrument damage to a Beaufigher flown by a Junior Ace:

Another success for the Japanese as a Kittyhawk explodes:

Another fun game with a load of planes which went a bit quicker as we have (slightly) more idea what we are doing and the paper turning templates helped a lot.

The final score (I think) was all four Zeros shot down, one Jack shot down and one critically damaged against two Hudsons, one Kittyhawk and one critically damaged Beaufighter for the Australians.

Considering their dismal start not a bad result for the Japanese. The Beaufighter is a tricky opponent with its massive firepower (14 against 8 for the Japanese planes) and robustness so I think I'd have been better off targeting them to start off and then trying to deal with the Hudsons and Kittyhawks. I've painted up some Buffalos for the Australians so maybe we will try them next time.