Warring States – Test of Honour campaign day
Saturday 30th September saw twenty hopeful Warlords come together at Warlord Games HQ in Nottingham to do battle in the Warring States campaign day, an event which was very well organised by the chaps from Infamous Gaming.
The campaign day took the form of a series of four battles, with players fighting different opponents on different tables throughout the day.
Points were awarded dependent upon the battle outcome, with a number of bonus points available for:
- Your Samurai Hero surviving the battle
- Your opponents Samurai Hero being killed
- Your opponents Samurai Hero being killed by your lowest point unit
- Complete a Quest skill card
- Complete the game without drawing a dishonour card
Though prizes were available at the end of the day, the main aim of the event was to have fun with like-minded gamers – an aim that was very successful.
Battle 1: Defend our Lord
A 15 point battle with the objective of killing the opponents Samurai Hero
My opponent was David Mellor, with his superbly painted undead Samurai warband.
After a couple of initial moves in which missile fire was exchanged, we decided to get stuck in and battle it out toe-to-toe…
…which turned into something of a comedy of errors as we each consistently failed to hit, or dodged our opponents sword cuts.
My Hero was eventually cut down – but it hardly seemed like a defeat as it was a hugely entertaining fight and we both had a really good laugh – an excellent start to the day.
David’s Undead Samurai warband, which went on to win ‘best painted’ award
Battle 2: Sudden Attack
This was an 18 point battle, with the attacker attempting to capture three objectives in a village from the defender.
This second battle was against Martyn Hotchkiss and his Ronin warband.
I set up in the middle of the table, and Martyn attacked from the left. He made steady progress across the table, with an epic battle developing between our two Heroes.
Meanwhile, my devoted Samurai attacked a group of archers and spent several turns not being able to hit anything.
At the end of the game, despite losing all but four of my warband, I managed to win the game – contesting two objective markers whilst being in control of the third. Talk about skin of the teeth!
Battle 3: Vital Ground
The ain of this battle was to seize and hold as many objectives as possible, using a 21 point force.
My opponent for this battle was Matt Rattenbury of the Three Swords podcast, so the honour of UK podcasters was at stake!
Matt had bravely taken the option of a fully mounted warband (an option I had seriously considered) so he had the advantage of speed, but was seriously outnumbered.
The result of the battle wasn’t pretty. I would doubt it if I hadn’t witnessed it with my own eyes, but Matt appears to be even worse at rolling dice than I am!
Matt had to suffer the ignominy of one of his Samurai being the only victim of my muskets (they spent the rest of the day missing targets by a mile) although his remaining single mounted retainer survived for 5 turns before being cut down, with only 2 minutes left in the round – adding that up, yes, I managed to fail to wound him with over 20 attacks!
Though his forces lost, I though Matt won the battle for the coolest T-Shirt! Isn’t that logo great?
Battle 4: The Battle of Uedahara
In the last battle of the day we could finally bring our entire 24 point warband to the table in a no-holds-barred battle to kill as many of the opposition as possible.
My opponent was Terry Matlman with his Ikko-Ikki force
Things did not go well for the stalwart forces of the his Imperial majesty, which included my Hero being cut down after managing a fumble whilst rolling 7 avoid dice!
My other Samurai again showed themselves to be somewhat inept at swordplay – suffice it to say that the rebel forces won a resounding victory – quite appropriate really!
The day ended with my warband earning a quite respectable won 2 – lost 2 record, although to be honest the result was not really the point of the day. I met a great bunch of fellow gamers, played some great games in a friendly and jovial atmosphere. What more could you ask for?
A fantastic event – well done to Kieran, Matt, Jezz and everyone else involved in the organisation of the day. I eagerly look forward to the next one.
Tales of @NeilTheDwarf 
Putting the plastics aside and filing them under ‘functional’ Test of Honour is a really good, properly fun game. I haven’t played nearly enough of it. Must rectify that. Good article, looked like a fun event.