Re: WHFRP - I think it's actually in the rulebook that every adventure requires a trip through the sewers
D - your champions story reminds me of a game of WHFB I 'played' in once. Our friend Jeff organized a 3 vs. 3 "good vs. evil" game of 10,000 pts/side.
Good was Empire (T1), Wood Elves (T2), and Dwarves (me). Evil was Undead (R), Chaos Dwarves (J1), and Orcs/Goblins (J2). Jeff was referee.
Rather than place the dwarves on one flank supported by artillery, which would have minimized the impact of their low move score, T1 and T2 decide to place it would be better to put them in the middle and try to squeeze the flanks with cavalry on the left side and wood elf something or other on the right flank.
Evil was going for a straight ahead "charge all of our crap across the table" strategy.
This was 3rd edition, the pinnacle of hero-hammer, with the longest magic phases ever which, as a dwarf player, I did not get to participate in.
Evil gets turn one. During shooting, chaos dwarves get a perfect shot right into the middle of my 4 units of troops with earthshaker cannon, stunning them. As I am next to wood elves, I take a penalty to leadership rolls, which causes me to fail. I can now not move, fight, or shoot until the next turn. I am effectively out of turn 1 altogether.
The empire general, T1, is hyper-concerned about mage placement for maximum effect, so magic phases take approximately an hour. I decide to leave, go get some chow, and come back about an hour later, in time for our side to finish the first turn.
Turn 2 - CD earthshaker repeats it's earlier feat. I am again rendered immobile. And so on until the middle of turn 3 where J1 has the courtesy to swoop his hero on manticore in and destroy my immobile units so that I can at least give up the pretense of being part of the game. I then spent the rest of the time mocking the other good generals for their tactical "not-good-ness".
Highlights:
T1 has a full unit of 15 Reiksguard Knights heavy cavalry **get charged** by a block of skeletons because he got so wrapped up in mage placement he forgot to move them. Needless to say, having your heavy cav die that way will earn you plenty of mocking.
T2 getting ****ed because the O&G's wouldn't charge his unit of 50 skirmishing archers. J2's response was "I don't need to roll my own flank just so you can feel good about crappy deployment."
Needless to say I graciously bowed out of any more 10k point games.