This Wednesday saw the commencement of the one-on-one games, and resolved all the cloak-and-dagger I’ve been going on about, with hopefully the majority of the jigsaw pieces falling into place – players were given missions based on the combination of the strategies that the two players had chosen, giving them different deployment zones, objectives and special rules to use instead of the ‘standard’ missions from the rulebook.

However, such a departure from the tried-and-tested was not without it’s risks, and one of the scenarios I’d written (Offensive Vs. Defensive – Spearhead) proved rather unbalanced, leading to one-sided games. The only saving grace of which was that the two such games came out as a win for opposite sides, so ultimately not affecting the outcome of the campaign (although the mission has been scrapped and will be replaced before next week’s games).

The five games of the evening consisted of:

A small (1000pts) game between Karl’s Necrons (Loyalists) and Alex’s Imperial Guard (Revolutionists) using the Ambush scenario. After a disastrous use of the Veil of Darkness by Karl’s warlord and retinue (destroyed by a Deep Strike mishap), the weight of so many tanks proved too much.

A rather beautiful table played host to Paul N’s Imperial Guard (Revolutionists) against Derek’s Imperial Guard (Loyalists). This was one of the Spearhead games and even a cinematic charge across the bridge by Derek’s Ogryns couldn’t save the day.

The other Spearhead game was Paul B’s Crimson Fists (Loyalists) versus Dave’s Chaos (Revolutionists). Despite managing to get both Predator tanks and a squad of Chaos Space Marines off the board, rather too many casualties had been inflicted on the rest of Derek’s army to win the day.

A mildly confusing game to spectators, the next game between Mo (Loyalist) and Craig (Revolutionists) consisted of two similarly silver Necron forces, and we can only hope that both players went home with the models that they came with! Using the Ambush scenario, the game dragged out to the end of the night, layers of armour, invulnerable and reanimation saves blunting any attempt to cause casualties on either side, eventually resulting in a 5 to 2 win for Mo.

The last game of the evening was another set of matching Codexes – a Space Marine on Space Marine tussle by Bob’s Exorcists (Revolutionists) and Andy’s Crimson Fists (Loyalists). Playing the King of the Hill scenario, even the arrival from reserves of a Land Raider filled with Terminators couldn’t swing the game in Bob’s favour, as his vehicles succumbed one-by-one to Andy’s proliferation of heavy weapons and Andy had discovered how to make armour saves (after being quite terrible at it during the opening week’s game).

Ultimately the night ended with three Loyalist wins to two Revolutionist wins, meaning the Loyalists get the following bonus for the rest of the campaign:

Inspiring Presence – All friendly units within 12” of your Warlord may use his/her Leadership instead of their own for any Leadership tests.