Test of Honour - Breakthrough

Mission 5 of our Test of Honour linked campaign.
BREAKTHROUGH

Points: 22

William
Ronin Hero (Tadashi the honourable)
Ronin Second
Attack Doggo
Ashigaru archer X 3
Ronin Thug X 4
Bannerman

Paul & Allan
Unarmoured Samurai Hero
Devoted Samurai
Ashigaru Archer
Veteran Ashigaru Archer
Ashigaru Spearman
Ashigaru Musketmen Group
Musketman Sargeant

Following on from the previous battle, the Geisha spy has been rescued and is now being escorted, unfortunately we have been ambushed and Paul has attempted to steal her back... Battle shall commence!

The objectives of both side is to have control of the Geisha spy and move her to the opposite end of the board.

We started of placing our forces 12" into the board. Hero first then companions and then everybody else. I significantly outnumbered Paul so had a fair bit of flexibility with where I wanted to place my troops.

Once the troops were deployed I picked the first token and off I went!

My rough tactics was to advance on the right flank using the bamboo as cover from his gunmen. My Ronin on the left are to flank and act as a distraction.

First few moves were uneventful with everybody advancing up slightly. Paul's bowman took a shot and wounded my banner man. 

In retaliation one of my bowmen advanced and took a shot at shot at Paul's musket men, which forced them to lose an action and took a wound. Super easy to shoot at groups when using the V2 rules, which state that you get +1 to hit groups with shooting attacks.

My Ronin advanced on the left flank and Paul's Ashigaru took up a defensive position by the fence.

The nearby archer had no actions left and so Tadashi bravely/foolishly charged in but failed to make contact.

Paul's unarmoured hero who was hiding around the corner of the building moved up to be ready for a charge for his next activation. (Can't charge around corners)

My escort carrier charged the hero to try and protect Tadashi but failed horribly and got stabbed and wounded for his efforts. (Paul rolled a critical evade)

Tadashi gambled and used his last activation to charge into Paul's hero and annihilated him with an instant KILL.  Unfortunately Paul rolled a success on the test of honour and so his hero came back to life with an injury card. (-1 strength)  Nobody challenges Tadashi and lives.. at least not for long

Utterly enraged by Paul's Hero failure in combat Allan's devoted samurai charged in to the rescue. He barged past his ally, which lead to a -1 to hit. He took a dishonour card due to Tadashi being out of actions, which brought his "to hit" roll back up to normal.  Unfortunately he fumbled and received a blood drop. One can only assume that he was too star-struck by being in Tadashi's presence to concentrate on his swordmanship.  I don't blame him...

WHATTTTT!!?  The next turn consisted of Paul activating his archer to shoot noble Tadashi IN THE BACK at close range !!!!  Luckily Paul forgot to put bowstring on so the shot missed. 

Tadashi who was outranged at the attempt on his life by the archer decided to direct his rage on to the nearby devoted samurai who was promptly crushed by Tadashi's mighty club. 

This prompted a test of honour to all nearby troops. Paul's unarmoured samurai with his injury fled the scene...  pfttt, as if I expected anything else!

The archers on the right continued to pepper the musketmen group with arrows to prevent them from shooting.   Paul had a musketman Sargent who was giving out free reloads, which meant those musketmen could not be allowed an action to shoot.

With Tadashi dominating combat (as is always the case) my second in command saw his opportunity to break ranks and make a run for it with his precious cargo.

I try to move my grunts up as far as possible to cause disruption.

The second in command pulled a fate card and used it. Unfortunately it turned out that only two models could benefit from this.  9" is shorter than I thought!

Paul's hero moves back up to Tadashi for another dose of pain.

Uh oh... this is something I didn't foresee. My escort team found themselves in-between two archers!!!  They both took shots and managed to cause a blood drop but no kill.

My Ronin eventually got up to the front lines to charge into the nearby Ashigaru but couldn't quite make it. Next turn he will be dead!

The next turn was more bad news for my escort team. The Ashigaru refused honourable combat with my Ronin and jumped over the fence to charge into the escort team!  DISASTER! :O

Luckily the Ashigaru proved himself to be worthless and couldn't land a hit on the defensiveness escort.

Sensing his master was in danger the attack Doggo charged in! Unfortunately he couldn't get in a hit but forced Paul's hero to take an action to avoid his sharp teeth.

Tadashi attacks the nearby archer and reduces him to dust. He took an honour card to reduce his attack by one as to further demonstrate his superiority at combat.

Great card!!!    Tadashi uses this card immediately and gives the escort team another action to move out towards the board edge.

With the archer now nothing but memories (good ones for Tadashi) Paul's hero runs away again!

Things are looking good for the escort team who has the board edge in sight!

The archers move up and start taking shots at Paul's hero. 

Twang twang!   No damage but also no more actions for Paul... ;)

A nearby Ronin sensing weakness charges in and delivers the final blow for Paul's hero.  The crowd goes wild with cheers and celebration (I imagine).

The game is called time as the escort team limps to the board edge.

Great game that could had easily had gone either way. We had very different builds with Paul's list being much more elite than mine, which relied on numbers.  There were numerous turns where I was just taking all of the tokens from the bag due to Paul having nobody left to activate. 

We found that the musketmen were not great value for points. My three archers didn't get any kills but robbed Paul of his precious actions, which was devastating due to having only a few models.

There were a fair few times when I was in great danger and could had lost. Tadashi somehow survived multiple attacks from heroes and archer. Tadashi will henceforth be called "Tadashi the lucky bastard". The escort team should had died after foolishly walking up the road and being charged by an ashigaru and having two archers shooting point blank at him!   The gods of shitty dice rolling had given their blessing to Paul for this game.

Doggo of the match was awarded to the ferocious Attack Doggo!