I managed to play a quick game of my heavily modified Song of Blades last night which pitted the forces of the Governor General against the local Orkish tribe.
I didn't manage to grab a few pics of the action:
The Imperial forces suffered from a decided lack of motivation at the start of the battle due to some really rubbish activation rolls which saw most of them stuck in their own deployment zone for a large chunk of the game:
The criminally unpainted Sentinel scurries forward
Entertainingly, our cat Mab decided to invade the battlefield whenever I rolled a dice which made for an interesting obstacle on the table:
Quake before the mighty death cat!
The Orks didn't suffer from any lack of motivation and they cheerily charged forward blazing away at the Governors private shuttle riddling it with bolter shells and setting it ablaze.
Dakka! Dakka! Dakka!
They also spotted the unpainted walker and proceeded to light it up too causing considerable damage to the embarrassingly underpainted machine.
Meanwhile on the right flank, the Grot herders surged forward towards the now badly damaged walker while the local Mekboy zoomed towards the command squad in his souped up Speeda.
The action heats up
By the mid point in the battle, the Orks pretty much have control of the refinery but suddenly stall, again due to poor activation rolls which allowed the Imperials to regain the initiative.
Orks get distracted by watching the Governors ride burn...
Slowly the Imperial troops, no doubt chivvied on by the incensed Governor Generals shouting about his treasured lander going up in flames while they skulked in the trees.
Midway through the battle
At this point, Mab has briefly calmed down and was now reclining on her chair watching the action unfold.
Bloosh!
Just as the Imperials seized the initiative, having shot up the forward Ork squad, the enraged Orkish survivors shot up the already damaged unpainted Sentinel sending it crashing to the ground in a ruined, unpainted wreck.
Jeering Orks
Meanwhile the Mekboy, closed in on the Governor's command squad and gunned down one of his bodyguards with his Super Snazzy Mega Gun.
The Mekboy performs a driveby
The return fire from the survivors of the command squad was surprisingly effective as the Mekboys Kustom Mega Shield Generator spectacularly failed to deflect or defeat anything whatsoever and the speedsta hurtles on out of control and belching flames.
Eventually, the Imperials forced the Orks to retire leaving most of the Grots full of holes but it was a pyrrhic victory as the Governors shuttle burned and one of their Sentinels destroyed too.
Imperial Troops finally move out of the forest
I really enjoyed playing out the game and the rules are shaping up nicely. I still need to work on how activation works but combat was suitably bloody rather than the more usual push and shove of Song of Blades.
Imperial Sentinel of utter uselessness
The most useless model of the game goes to my painted Imperial Sentinel which managed to activate only once in the whole game and spent pretty much the rest of the battle lurking in the shrubbery. The Governor General will be spending some time encouraging his troops to be more zealous in future...
I really need to paint up my second Sentinel as it's lack of snazzy paint saw it shot to pieces in its first game!