Fight in the Shade - Wargods AAR

Carl and I finally got the chance to play a game of Wargods, with two warbands from Aegyptus. Since it was my first game ever, and Carl's first game in more than five years, we decided for a straight bash across a 4x4 table. 

Carl was kind enough to loan me some of his models, so I could get my warband up to 1500~ points. 

My list:

• Asar Harbinger of Osiris - Hand Weapon, Medium Armor, Shield, Amulet of Isis
• Asar Master of Words - Hand Weapon, Light Armor
• Asar Priestess of Isis - Hand Weapon, Light Armor
• Asar Champion - Double Hand Weapon, Medium Armor, Amulet of Isis
• Asar Champion - Spear, Shield, Medium Armor, Amulet of Isis
• Sebeki Champion - Hand Weapon x2, Amulet of Isis
• Asar Warriors (14) - Hand Weapons, Medium Armor, Shields, Standard, Musician
• Asar Warriors (14) - Spears, Medium Armor, Shields, Standard, Musician
• Asar Warriors (10) - Improvised Weapons, Slings, Light Armor
• Sebeki Warriors (6) - Double Hand Weapons, Standard, Musician
• Anubi Warriors (10) - Hand Weapons, Bows, Light Armor

Carl's List

• Basti Harbinger of Bast - Hand Weapon, Spear, Amulet of Bast
• Basti Master of Words - Hand Weapon, Amulet of Bast
• Asar Priestess of Bast
• Asar Champion - Hand Weapon, Shield
• Asar Champion - Hand Weapon, Shield
• Basti Warriors (10) - Hand Weapons x2, Standard, Amulet of Bast
• Basti Warriors (10) - Bows, Amulet of Bast
• Asar Warriors (12) - Spear, Shields, Standard
• Asar Warriors (12) - Hand Weapon, Shields, Standard
• Sebeki Warriors (12) - Hand Weapons, Heavy Armor, Shields, Amulet of Bast

You'll noticed that the lists are split between a smaller force with more armor, and a larger force with little armor. I was curious as to how this would turn out - would Carl's force be offensive enough to reach my lines before taking casualties from a lack of armor saves?

We alternated deploying units and characters up to 6" away from the table edge. I kept my units close together, while Carl had his spread out a little more.

During the first turn, our units started moving across the table. My Master of Words cast Far-Seeing Eyes, doubling the range of his next spell.

Turn two say both sides still advancing. However, my Master of Words then cast The Land's Despite, reaching out and slowing the large unit of Sebeki's Move Value from 4 to 2, which would last for five turns. Thanks to the dune in front of the Sebeki, they were only moving 1-2" per turn, effectively keeping them out of the battle. This had the added benefit of keeping the unit of Asar Warriors trapped behind them.

This turn also saw the start of ranged combat, and thanks to some hot dice rolling on my part, I managed to cause four casualties to Carl's Basti archers, who then failed their rout save and turned tail. I moved my Master of Words up, but regretted that decision when Carl's slingers managed to knock a wound off of the magic-user. His own wizard then prepped for the next round with a Far-Seeing Eyes spell.

On the next turn, some concentrated shooting between my archers and slingers forced another rout with Carl's Basti swordsmen. In retaliation, Carl's Master of Words threw down an extended-range Spiky Ground in front of my Sebeki unit. Luckily, the hardy lizardmen were able to march across the ensconced terrain with no ill effect.

My Master of Words, in an attempt to make his way to the front and gain an unobstructed view of the battle, caught another barrage of sling-bullets and went down.

Long-ranged fire continued to wreck havoc across Carl's battleline. His Basti warriors failed to rally, unlike the archers, and so ran off the table. The same happened to his unit of Asar swordsmen, who routed after a deadly hail of arrows and bullets cut down a quarter of their numbers. With my left flank unopposed, my own swordsmen marched forward at the double time.

On the right, my unit of Sebeki were moving as quickly as possible. Carl had managed to hit them with Sulfurous Fissures, preventing them from charging into the slingers. His Master of Words then cast Hailstorm on the slingers, and the increased damage managed to kill two of the Sebeki. This, however, gave the lizardmen room to maneuver into a charge that then routed the slingers, and prevented the still-slowed enemy Sebeki from being able to charge into contact.

In the center, Carl's and my own Harbingers finally met, and began a Provocation. Meanwhile, my Anubi archers wiped out their Basti counterparts with some seriously scary accurate shots from their bows, but not before the Basti managed to kill a couple Asar swordsmen.

After a couple rounds of combat, my armored Harbinger won the fight, killing the Harbinger of Bast and absorbing his Ka.

With the death of their leader, Carl's army broke, with all of his units (save the slingers, who had managed to rally) routing, turning and retreating towards the opposite table edge. We decided to call it there - there was little chance that Carl's units could recover, and I held the advantage of a mostly intact force in addition to my Harbinger. 

I had a lot of fun playing Wargods for the first time. It's very Herohammer-esque, with all the characters running around, and I like the smaller unit sizes (where 14-15 models is a standard unit, compared to the 20+ of Kings of War, Warhammer, or the 9th Age). The rules are pretty simple, and the command counters, combined with alternating activations of the player's choice, is ingenious. Hopefully I'll get to play more in the future, along with adding some more miniatures to the collection.