Cinquecento Final Showdown: Bretonnia vs Dwarfen Mountain Holds
The last battle of Cinquecento is underway
The final game of our Cinquecento league gave us exactly what we wanted: a small-format game with big emotions, dramatic swings, very funny moments, and a proper cinematic ending. This time it was Kingdom of Bretonnia vs Dwarfen Mountain Holds on a desert table, with Wilini commanding the Bretonnians and End3r leading the dwarfs.
And yes, it started with a soundtrack.
From the first photos we already knew this was going to be one of those games. There was dwarf shooting, a gyrocopter, cavalry trying to survive the approach, peasants trying very hard not to panic, and a lot of discussion in chat about whether anyone was recording this glorious mess.
The armies and the setup
Wilini later wrote up a full summary for us, and honestly, respect — this thing took him 40 minutes and gave us the backbone for this report.
On the Bretonnian side we had:
- a Damsel
- Men-at-Arms
- Archers
- two units of Knights of the Realm
The Damsel rolled:
- Oaken Shield
- Lady’s Wrath
On the dwarf side:
- an Engineer
- Organ Gun on the hill
- Thunderers below it
- Dwarfen Warriors
- a Gyrocopter
Bretonnia did the proper Bretonnian thing and prayed for the blessing of the Lady, handing first turn to the dwarfs.
Round 1: the balloon arrives, the Lady watches
The gyrocopter made its vanguard move and went straight after one unit of Knights of the Realm. The bomb mostly achieved strategic sand displacement, but the flame attack did real damage and burned down one knight. A second was saved by the Lady.
Meanwhile, the rest of the dwarf shooting went into the other knight unit. The Organ Gun, Thunderers and Engineer all contributed, and suddenly Bretonnia was already feeling the pressure.
Then came the Bretonnian response. The Damsel successfully cast both spells, turning the peasant block into something much nastier than dwarfs usually want to see. Lady’s Wrath and Oaken Shield made the Men-at-Arms surprisingly scary: scythes, Strength 5, AP -2, and some protection to help them survive incoming damage.
The knights charged the gyrocopter, beat it in combat, and then pursued it clean off the table — which also conveniently took them out of the worst of the dwarf shooting for a moment. Extremely Bretonnian. Extremely funny.
Round 2: one lance erased, one lance commits
This was the point where the dwarf guns really showed what they could do.
One Bretonnian cavalry unit was simply shot off the table before it could achieve anything meaningful. As Wilini put it, that unit did not even make it halfway across the map. Organ Gun plus supporting fire in a small game is no joke.
The nearby peasants had to test leadership after seeing the knights destroyed — and passed while standing just 6” away. Huge moment. The peasant line held.
Then the surviving Knights of the Realm came in from behind the dunes and charged the Thunderers.
The combat itself was hilarious. The knights apparently found it hard to properly line up lance strikes against dwarfs because, as Stas later said, they are simply too short to hit comfortably from the saddle. The horses, on the other hand, had fewer such issues. One Thunderer died, the unit held as long as it could, and the knights kept the pressure on.
Round 3: dwarfs spread out, drilled does work
At one point Michal summed it up perfectly: the dwarfs had “spilled across the map.” What happened was a reform using Drilled, and it looked great on the table.
The Warriors reformed to face the cavalry, though a rules mix-up meant the charge distance was rolled on 1D6 and they failed to connect. On the Bretonnian side, the Men-at-Arms moved up, preparing to get involved, while the knights finished off the remaining Thunderers and lined up the Organ Gun.
Then they charged the gun crew.
The Organ Gun crew got wrecked, and once again the knights pursued off the table with Swiftstride, dodging more incoming fire by disappearing into the sands. This became a bit of a theme: arrive, hit something important, vanish theatrically.
Round 4: peasants do peasant hero things
This was probably our favorite phase of the game.
The Dwarfen Warriors turned to face the Men-at-Arms, formed a wide line, and charged. Because of the short charge distance, initiative ended up mattering in a very particular way, and the combat became an absolute grind.
And then we got the kind of combat resolution result that makes us love The Old World.
Combat res: 7:7. Musicians on both sides. Draw.
Yes, we are including this image twice because it happened twice in the chat and because it deserves the spotlight.
Stas said it best: he loves combat resolution, and honestly, same. This is exactly the sort of moment that gives these games texture. Not everything is just deleting units on impact — sometimes it is banners, musicians, stubbornness, formation, and a bunch of very determined peasants refusing to die fast enough.
Meanwhile, the knights came back onto the table and charged the dwarf Engineer. The last surviving Thunderer politely got out of the way via accidental contact logic, which is a sentence we are very happy to write.
At this point the game was still balanced enough that nobody was calling it. Michal described it perfectly in chat: even so far.
Round 5: the collapse
The lone surviving Thunderer had one last cinematic act in him. He climbed the hill, aimed at the Bretonnian archers who were apparently already relaxing around a campfire and celebrating too early, and shot one of them straight into the flames. Incredible image. No notes.
But the decisive moment came elsewhere.
The Knights of the Realm finally finished off the Engineer and overran into the rear of the Dwarfen Warriors, who were already locked in that ugly central fight with the Men-at-Arms. That was the end. With great weapons slowing the dwarfs down and the Bretonnian charge landing at exactly the right time, the warrior block was effectively broken apart.
One final dwarf tried to flee and rolled badly enough to get caught. Bretonnia had done it.
Final result: 621:177, which we translated as a 5:1.
The dwarfs were wiped.
MVPs of the game
Wilini called out two MVPs and we fully agree:
- The surviving unit of Knights of the Realm — especially impressive because they started the game already down one knight thanks to the gyrocopter attack.
- The Men-at-Arms with the Damsel buffs — Lady’s Wrath and Oaken Shield turned them from expendable peasants into a genuinely important combat block.
Meanwhile the archers mostly chilled in the back, occasionally contributing, occasionally smoking pipes in our collective imagination.
End3r’s photo dump from the day
We also got a full set of extra table shots from End3r, and they absolutely deserve to be in here.
League finale vibes
Once the dust settled, the chat turned into pure post-event happiness. There were congratulations all around, a lot of “what a game,” and the very wholesome realization that everyone in the league managed to score at least one win.
Stas posted the final score graphic:
And Michal summed up the mood perfectly: this was the most fun league he had ever played, and hopefully not the last.
We also immediately started talking about what comes next: campaign games, maybe a future Seicento, maybe experimenting more with objectives, maybe switching to a 20-point scale for more granular results. Basically, the classic “we just finished a thing, so naturally we are already planning three more things” hobby energy.
Rules note: Fated Dispel
There was also a useful rules follow-up after the game. During the report, it came up that the dwarfs had not attempted any dispels because we collectively assumed that without the right character support they just had to sit there and hate magic passively.
Turns out: Fated Dispel exists.
A very good reminder that one of the hidden benefits of league play is that every game teaches us something, and then the next game gets a little cleaner.
Bonus content: Bretonnian class consciousness
Late in the discussion, the report took a turn into darkly hilarious Bretonnian social commentary. We had jokes about how every dead knight is a tragedy while dead peasants are just statistics, plus one absolutely cursed image that now belongs to the history of this league.
And yes, it appeared twice in the thread, so here it is twice in spirit and literally.
One last image from the painting desk
As a final little epilogue to a very good day of toy soldiers, Wilini dropped a hobby progress shot: 5/14 done.
Final thoughts
This was exactly the kind of battle report we love writing about on Wiatry Magii:
- small game, big drama
- memorable rules moments
- heroic cavalry nonsense
- peasants overperforming beyond all social expectations
- lots of learning
- lots of laughter
Huge congrats to Wilini for the win, and to End3r for putting up a very dangerous dwarf gunline that absolutely deleted models before eventually getting run over. And honestly, huge congrats to the whole group — by the end of the league it was obvious that everyone was getting more confident, more fluent with the rules, and more invested in their armies.
If this was the end of Cinquecento, it was a very worthy one.
And yes, we are already thinking about what comes next.