Test of Honour - Final Campaign mission - Rescue!

The Final battle in our linked battles campaign for Test of Honour!

This mission is to rescue Tadashi's brother who has long been captured.
There are three objective markers in the town, only one of them marks the house where he is jailed and only Lee and Paul know which one it is.

To win we need to successfully conduct a search on an objective and reveal the number underneath. If it is the one then the prisoner is revealed and must be escorted safely off the table. Alternatively we can just kill all of the opponents heroes...

For this final game we decided to bump up the points and played with 30 points each.

Will & Paul 2.0 (Heroic would be rescuers) 
Ronin Hero
Ronin Second
Ronin X 2
Ashigaru archer
Ashigaru archer
Unarmoured samurai hero
Devoted samurai
Spearmen group
Sargent
Ashigaru archer

Lee & Big Beardy Paul 1.0 (Cruel jailers)
Unarmoured samurai hero
Devoted samurai
Samurai hero
Devoted samurai
Experienced musket group
Sargent of gunnery
Ashigaru archer
Ashigaru archer
Ashigaru spearman
Ashigaru spearman


Lee and Paul started off with deploying half of their force within the town (15 pts) with the other half in reserve.

Paul and myself deploy all of our forces on a table edge of our choosing.  We select the edge that has a big house, which we can use as cover for our heroes.

Lee and Paul deployed in the town center to cover all three objective markers

Lee started off by successfully rolling for reinforcements with his chubby samurai who promptly came charging in from the edge of the board into Paul 2.0's samurai!  Luckily Paul 2.0 had plenty of activations left and was able to fend off the feeble attack.



Tadashi and his brave Ronin second enter the building, ready for their ambush. Unfortunately Paul 2 Samurai hero has x-ray vision and spotted our maneuver! He moved up towards the door taking a defensive position.

Quick break to appreciate this amazing 3d Printed pond landscape that Paul 2.0 painted beautifully.

 Next up was a disaster for Lee! His chubby samurai was attacked by Paul 2.0, chubby rolled a critical fail on his avoid roll and fell on the floor causing small earthquake. Paul 2.0 wasn't able to finish him off with a kill but if it isn't the katana it will be his cholesterol that kills him in the end so it is just a matter of time....

Lee and Paul 1 continued to have a really tough time rolling the necessary "test of wits" to bring their troops on board. Picture below shows 3 troops who reaaaaally don't want to join the party.

Lee sends in a lowly Ashigaru to challenge the might of Tadashi who bravely cowers behind his Ronin second.

Paul 1 rolls a success for his reinforcements and charges his devoted samurai in from the board edge into Paul 2.0's samurai (to no effect). Lee's chubby samurai takes up cover in the nearby cherry blossom grove.

Paul 2.0 troops inch forward towards the town center. Two archers take shots at Lee's archers but miss. 

My Ronin thug charges into the chubby samurai who avoids but now has one less activation.  Unable to defend, Paul 2.0's samurai finishes the job and slays him.

Combat continued on the right hand side with Paul 1's samurai thrown on the floor with the knock Down skill.  This skill is incredibly useful as when you don't manage make a kill you can instead just smash them on the floor instead, which is quite useful when fighting heroes!

On the top side of the board I am getting very anxious over Paul 1 gunmen in reserve. I know he is desperate to bring them on this side to shoot at Paul 2.0 samurai hero. I move my archer to a spot where he could hopefully cover both table edges but I couldn't commit to where exactly! ahhh Such indecision is dishourable!

Paul 2.0 troops were now over the gate and marched to the next objective. They attempted to search but failed the roll.

For next turn we decided to charrrrrrrrge the troops into the nearby bowmen who were sure to  cause mayhem with their shots. We were worried that the archers would get a  +1 to hit and a +1 to damage due to range and the ashigaru being a group they were a high priority target.

One charge later, one dead archer!

My lone Ronin thug decides that fighting fair is for chumps and started his journey towards a nearby objective

Paul 1 attacks Paul 2's samurai but has a critical fail with the strike and.. you guessed it, fell over! There must be something funky about these blossom trees, at this stage of the game we had around 4 cases of people falling over.

Paul 1's turn arrived and as expected he successfully got his mustketmen group in from the reinforcement pool. They lined up their muskets and in a hail of fire INSTANTLY KILLED Paul 2's devoted samurai!  What a dishonourable way to go.. :(

Lee decided to go on a rampage and charged and killed a model from the nearby ashigaru spearmen group. They failed their moral test and ran away but couldn't run far enough as Lees black death samurai was hot on their heels and charged in again eventually killing off the entire group and a nearby Sargent in a deadly series of follow-ups! 

Paul 1's samurai finially decides to enter the house to see what was going on and discovers that the Ronin second had just been uselessly fumbling around and causing critical hits on himself... the fool!  

My ashigaru archer advances and takes a shot at the nearby mustketmen group who must be made to pay for their sins. He fails horribly and hurts himself in the process.

Inside the house Tadashi gives the beatdown on the ashigaru with Paul's samurai thinking better of it and fleeing. (Very understandable)

You can also see the path of destruction from lee's black samurai who had been busy killing all the ashigaru.

My lone ronin runs around the house to search the nearby objective

Lee's archer takes a cheeky shot at my nearby ronin thug but misses

After having killed everything in sight, Lee's black samurai moves up to guard the exit to the house.

My Ronin second charges out and kills Paul's samurai. Unfortunately he is resurrected with an injury card.  In response Lee's black samurai charges into my Ronin second AND takes a dishonour card to enhance his attack!

Hahahahahaa...  PUBLIC DISGRACE is pulled! this is the most dangerous card and can be absolute doom if any of your troops are near the board edge.

Unfortunately only one troop fled the scene, which was Paul 1 Musket Sargent

Unfortnately the last joke was on me as the Lee's black samurai easily slays my ronin.

Quick overview of the battlefield

Tadashi decides the time is right and heroically charges out of the building where he had been enjoying a fine cup of tea.

His first order of business is to use his "lighting thrust" skill and kill for good Paul 1's samurai hero.

Nobody shed a tear.

Lee then charged his black samurai into Tadashi and the titanic battle began!

After three hours of play my lowly ronin jumps over the fence to get a good view of Tadashi handing out the beatdown on the unworthy. Either that or he wanted to loot the body of the recently deceased Ronin second.. who knows!

The battle between Tadashi and the black samurai goes on for many turns with each easily avoiding each others attacks. Archers from both sides take pot-shots into the melee with no effect.  The action was tense and Lee and myself knew the battle hinged on this single combat!  (not really as paul 2's samurai was still alive)

After blows had been traded Tadashi decided to end the merry dance and pulled out his trump card "dirty trick", which prevents Lee from being able to avoid his deadly attack.

BOOM, Tetsubo club meet squishy head of the enemy.  Its a match made in heaven and Lee's black samurai was instantly killed with no recourse.

The epic game and campaign was over.  With all of the enemy heroes dead, Tadashi was reunited with his brother "Tadashi Junior". Family reunification is such a beautiful thing.. even if it has resulted in countless deaths and your brother is actually a demon.

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