So Close: a 34–36 Heartbreaker and One Charge Away from Victory
Battle report in one sentence
This one hurt.
Michał was in a really good spot at 20–14, and for a moment it looked like the game was going exactly the right way. Then the ending turned into the kind of Warhammer story we all know too well: a match decided by a single crucial roll.
In the end, it finished 34–36. A loss — but the painful kind, because it was so close.
The turning point
According to Michał, the whole game basically came down to one charge.
A 9-inch charge. Not easy, sure, but absolutely within reach — especially with a reroll available. And then the dice did what dice do best when they want to ruin our evening: after the reroll, it was apparently all ones.
That one failed charge was massive. If it had gone in, the score would have swung to 38–36 instead.
So instead of a narrow win, we got a narrow loss and a fresh reminder that sometimes the difference between glory and despair is just a handful of very stupid dice.
Still, that is a solid game
Honestly, losing by two points after being one roll away from flipping the result is frustrating, but it is also the kind of game that feels worth talking about afterwards.
These are often the best battle reports in hindsight:
- close score all the way through,
- real tension at the end,
- one key moment everyone remembers,
- and plenty to learn for the next game.
As Ender put it: experience gained. And that is the right way to look at it, even if the immediate post-game reaction was much less diplomatic.
Mutants on the table?
Stas asked Michał how he rated the mutant list and how it felt to play, which is exactly the kind of follow-up question we like after a game like this. We do not have a full breakdown yet, but the fact that the match ended 34–36 suggests the list was definitely not far off.
If a single failed charge is the thing separating a loss from a win, then the army probably did its job well enough to deserve another outing.
That is often the most interesting kind of list in testing: not obviously broken, not obviously weak, but sitting right in that sweet spot where a few decisions, a bit more practice, or slightly better dice can change everything.
Table shots
We also got a nice set of photos from the game:
Post-game club chat energy
The rest of the conversation had exactly the energy we expect after a close game: a bit of sympathy, a bit of list talk, and then immediately drifting into planning the next session.
There was also a side note about Soulblight Gravelords and a comment that KO have good cavalry, which sounds like the usual healthy mix of battle report analysis and instant hobby distraction.
Final thoughts
A 34–36 loss is rough.
A 34–36 loss where a rerollable 9-inch charge would have made it 38–36 is even rougher.
But those are the games we remember. Not the easy wins, not the one-sided disasters — the ones where everything comes down to one moment, one decision, one throw of the dice.
This time, the charge did not land.
Next time, maybe it does.