Topic: Army of Hochsleben Battle Log: Glottkin's horde.

[Cal1989]

Greetings Fellow Commanders!

As I'm starting a league with my local gaming group I thought I'd post the result of my first Friendly game I had today. I was playing an opponent who'd beaten me in my last two meetings, so I was looking for a bit of revenge. However time conspired against me and I didn't have time to make a full list so I adapted an old one  So the men of Hochsleben in Averland and to go to war in a less suitable state!

Also sorry for the lack of pics!


Army of Hochsleben

Lords

Wizard Lord: Level 4 Lore of life, Dispel Scroll, Talisman of Protection (Throne, Regrowth, Dwellers, Shield of Thorns)

Warrior Priest - Heavy Armour Shield Opal Amulet, Potion of Speed (General in Spears)

Warrior Priest - Heavy Armour Dragon Helm Ironcurse Icon Great Weapon (in halbs)

Captain Enc. Shield FP Dawnstone (Battle Standard in halbs)

Core

40 Spearmen - FC Shields (H2C)
40 Halberdiers - FC  (H3C)

10 Archers
5 Archers Det.
5 Archers Det.

10 ICK - Full Command

1 Great Cannon

1 Hurricanium

1 Steam Tank (First Time I ever used one!)

Opponent had 3 hordes of 30 Orcs - Black, Savage and Boyz - 2x Doom Divers - A Big Boss,  A Savage shaman lvl 2 (Gork'll fix it and Foot of Gork), A Gobbo shaman level 4 (Vindictive glare sneaky stabbing and two more that weren't used) and a Gobbo BSB everything except the Lvl 4 started in the savages. Which in hindsight I think shouldn't be allowed as they're frenzied but oh well!



Orc Turn One
MY opponent started with some rather unimaginative deployment getting his Savages stuck behind the large central grave yard! I just prayed for First Turn and hoped my cannons could clear his Doom Divers away. Unfortunately this was not the case. He got first turn and started a general advance luckily his savages and boyz squabbled (I forgot to add the marker for the Boyz and there move forward due to their roll of a six). His Magic was stopped but I had to burn my scroll to stop the 3D6 strength 6 hits from a 6 dice vindictive glare, luckily it was not cast with irresistible force. His first doom diver targeted my knights but failed to wound, his second however killed three resulting in a panic test; which they duly failed and they were just outside the BSB's radius. The infantry would have to go on with out noble support. Who needs aristocrats anyways!



Empire Turn One
The infantry took the knights desertion with grim resignation, there light armour was no match for the impending Black Orc charge (His doom divers had done this to my knight before, hence they must be developing a bit of complex about the crazy goblin diver bombers). I set my infantry up in such a way that the orcs could not charge one without the other, with the hurricanium supporting them both. The magic phase was short, My wizard failed to cast Throne of vines, the Hurricanium failed to spin the black orcs around, but my warriors priest got the 5+ ward save on both units of state troops! The shooting phase saw my Steam Tank's cannon shatter the doom diver on the hill whilst my great cannon smashed the second doom diver in the abandoned dwarf fort! Hooray for effective counter battery fire! A turn too late though in my opinion!



Orc Turn two
The orcs second turn saw his Black Orcs charge both of my State Troop units and his Orc Boyz trying a long range charge on my wizard bunker which fled although it turned out he failed the charge! , after his failed charge his general left the savages and joined the boyz. I was just hoping the wizard would rally! His magic saw the Black orcs gain armour piercing. My bsb Killed his champ and the state troops felled 5 more of the orcs, he killed 3 spears and 9 halbs in return, (I made 8 out of 11 ward saves on the spears but failed 9 out 12 on the halbs  ) The warrior priests added two extra kills but i still lost the combat, both units held, thanks to hatred and the hurricanium!



Empire Turn Two

In my turn the Steam Tank (Averheim Annie) failed to reach the Orc Boys rolled a 9 but needed an 11 on 3d6! I was tempted to send the hurricanium into the black orcs but decided against it. The wizard rallied and magic saw me maintain the 5+ on the spears but not on the halbs, the wizard cast throne of vines but wasn't able to cast anything else, due to lack of dice. Shooting saw the stank steam the orc boys killing roughly 4, the cannon splatted a few savages and the archers killed a few boys. The combat continued with the Empire gaining the upper hand killing enough orcs to win the combat by 1. His orcs only killed about 8 men all told but I did enough kills along with my static combat res to win things, unfortunately they held.



Orc Turn three

The Orc third turn saw even more shenanigans with the Orc general's unit failing its animosity test and squabbling among itself for the duration of the turn! The savages finally moved towards the closet unit which was the archers in the graveyard. Magic Saw throne dispelled and a buff cast on the Black Orcs meaning I had to re-roll 6's to hit & wound etc. All of my dice went into dispelling a Foot of Gork. Combat saw the tide finally turn against the Black Orcs with the State troops, Captain and Warrior Priest slaying 11 of the remaining 18 orcs, Surprising I think it was the spear men who had the largest individual tally killing 5, The halbs killed 3 after and the characters the rest; the return orc attacks dropped a few guys but nothing significant. The orcs duly ran and were chased down by the Halberdiers, killing the Level 4 Goblin caster in the process. The Spearmen reformed to face the Savage orcs.



Empire Turn three

Averheim Annie generated four steam points and prepared to charge only to get a bloody valve lock, which rendered it immobile for the turn  ! The Halbs and the Spearmen Moved to threaten the Savage orcs flank if they went after the archers or their rear if they moved towards the steam tank. Magic saw throne of vines recast and an irresistible 6 dice dwellers on the savages, the miscast was averted, 9 savages were sucked into the void! The archers tried to plink a few more orcs from the hordes, whilst the Steam Gun @ Str 4 broiled a few more boys whilst the steam cannon itself sailed harmlessly over the boyz, they must have heard it being loaded and dived out of the way. The cannon however misfired taking it out of the game for two turns.This three inch stalemate had now lasted two full turns!




Orc Turn four

Finally the Steam tank got into combat but unfortunately I didn't get to charge with it! But the rest of the turn proved rather dull with the orc player restraining his savages and reforming to face my infantry. I managed to shut the magic phase down as he rolled 2&1 and failed to cast Gork'll fix it. In combat his boss went to town on my Stank dealing 3 wounds with a magic axe that increased his strength and attacks by d6 but reduced his weapon skill by the same, luckily the strength 8 7 attack monster struggle to hit on 5's and only did 3 wounds!


Empire Turn 4

I maneuvered to reform my lines 15.5" away from the orcs hoping to force a long range charge from the savages at my battleline, forgetting to move my archers out of line of sight of the savages! The Stank grinded two orcs. I AGAIN forgot to move my archers out of the way of the savages & It was only during the shooting phase that I realized this! The rest of the turn saw Six more savages succumb to Dwellers below and I cast shield of thorns on the Steam Tank killing an Orc or two, I also restored two wounds back on the tank. Combat was pretty much the same with the Orc boss taking 3 wounds, the Steam gun killed 2 and combat continued.



Orc Turn 5

I expected an all out savage charge into my archers but instead my opponent opted to restrain and shuffled backwards! The Orcs Boss continued to batter on the tank knocking a few wounds off, nothing else of note happened.


Empire Turn 5

I really wanted to march forward with my state troops to try and lore the savages into one last charge but decided to air on the side of caution and stayed still, again I didn't move my archers! The Stank suffered another Valve lock immobilizing it. My opponent dispelled Throne of Vines but I managed to get a wound back on the tank by casting Earthblood on the archers and Shield of thorns on the Steam tank. The cannon and the archers felled a few more Savages with some volley fire. Whilst the tank suffered a few more wounds in combat but steam a few orcs in the process.



Orc Turn 6

My Opponent again stood still with his savages [I don't why but it kind of annoyed me that he did go after the archers, I made a glaring error two turns on the bounce and hadn't been punished for it... He must of thought it was a trap.] Magic again saw a buff on the boyz but I stopped Foot of Gork! The tank was taken down to five wounds in combat and the engineer actually killed an orc!



Empire Turn 6

Final turn, became mostly a wrapping up job as most of my stuff was to far out of the way to do any real damage. Magic saw throne of vines cast again along with an irresistible Dwellers on the savages killing the Level 2 and a clutch of Orcs, shooting added to the tally bringing the orcs numbers down to five and the Bsb. The stank had regained two wounds from Magic but lost them again effectively ending the game with a handful of orcs and a character left in my unit. In my haste to get to the Magic phase I forgot to generate steam points on my Steam Tank so I let it go. Overall I good performance from the Empire despite my mistakes, I did rather well in the magic phases but I think the main factor was knocking out both Doom divers in the first turn.




Thanks for reading, apologies about the shaky battle chronicler arrows, I'm still rather new to it.

[Big Brother]

Enjoyed reading. Thanks for the diagrams!

[Gunman006]

Yeah very cool battle and nice outmanovering  was thinking you were going to loose with that loss at the first round

[stareso]

Nice victory hard won by the Empire's finest

[Cal1989]

Back again, had a game at a new Gaming Group last night; 2000 points against High Elves. Used the same list as the week before when I played my buddy's Brets but I don't count those games as we've played each other so many times!

Anyway, the High Elf player starts to unpack and plonks a Dragon, a frostheart, two eagles, three units of Reavers on the table before he starts to unpack his infantry. I was like Why doesn't the empire have flak cannons?! Anyways here's my list.


Wizard Lord: Level 4 Lore of light, Dispel Scroll (Speed of Light, Light of Battle, Net of Amytok, Birona's Time Warp)

Warrior Priest - Heavy Armour Great Weapon, Opal Amulet, Ironcurse Icon (General in Spears)

Warrior Priest - Heavy Armour Dragonbane Gem, Other tricksters shard Great Weapon (in halbs)

Captain Enc. Shield FP Dawnstone (Battle Standard in halbs)

Engineer

40 Spearmen - FC Shields (H2C)
40 Halberdiers - FC  (H3C)

10 Archers
5 Archers Det.
5 Archers Det.

2x Great Cannons

1x Helblaster

1 Hurricanium

1 Steam Tank

My opponent ran something like this

Level 4 Archmage - Shadow, 4+ ward save
Level 2 Light Mage riding Sun Dragon 4+ ward save (Not sure how he had two four ups unless the dragon mages can wear armour?)

3 units of Reavers with Bows and spears, no musicians
16 Lothern Seaguard Full command

2 Great Eagles
19 Pheonix Guarg Full command banner of the World Dragon

1x Frostheart Pheonix

Deployemnt

Fairly Standard, Battle Line formation Archer Skirmishers taking the residents in the ruins on my right, State troopers form up in the middle near a large crater and with a long wall between the lines. Cannons, Engineer and the Steam tank form the left flank. The Helblaster goes to support my State troops along with the hurricanium.

The Elven infantry form the centre with a single unit of reavers, 1 unit of reavers and an eagle on each flank with the Dragon and Frost heart deploying opposite my three cannons (I don't know what he was thinking, other than a first turn rush).



Empire Turn 1

The elf vanguards are included here. I reshuffled some of my line, moved a few units up moved the rest tried to close gaps to stop fast cavalry and flyers sneaking past my lines, Boosted light of battle was cast and perhaps Speed of light which was dispelled. Shooting would have to prove effective to thin out some of these flying threats. The Helblaster, which I regrettably no where near an engineer destroyed itself before it fired a shot in anger  , luckily there was no panic caused by the contraptions detonation. Starting as I meant to go on, the first cannon aimed at the frost heart but misfired, the engineers re-roll saved it but the shot fell short, the second cannon hit and got past the ward save but only did one wound. On the far side of the field 20 archers killed  a single reaver! It was all down to the Steam tank then, which bucked the trend and managed to hit the frost heart, get past the ward save and take the last four wounds off the giant Ice bird! A cheer went up from the men of the Empire as the frost heart shattered into glass on the farside of the field. Just a dragon and two eagles to deal with now.



High Elf Turn 1

Everything moved up, a reaver unit charged my archers, I held as I was fearful of botching a panic test so near my board edge. The reavers vanguards are included in their moves, making their arrows look massive. The magic phase was uneventful, as was the shooting phase, the archers held in their combat thanks to the steadfast of their parent unit and the proximity of the BSB.



Empire Turn 2

I again rearranged my lines, the second archer detachment charged the Reavers in the flank. Across the field the steam tank tried a charge on the Dragon but failed, rolled a 4 on 3d6! I ultimately resigned that flank to it's fate but there was still time to bring the dragon down! Magic phase saw Net of Amytok dispelled on the dragon, I buffed my spears with the 5+ ward save in case the dragon came a calling and finally light of battle on the Spearmen. Shooting saw both cannons fail to hit the dragon both falling short despite it being 11" away, even with the engineers re-roll on one of them. The last hope was the steam tanks remaining steam point, the cannonball clunked in the mechanism the shot was close range and had a high chance of over shooting, Otto Von Carius the engineer, wiped his soot stained brow as he lined up the shot at the flying beast. FIRE! The tank recoiled from the shot, the flash blinding the crew. The men of the Empire gasped collectively as the cannonball sailed towards the dragon.

IT WAS A DIRECT HIT! The cannonball killed the dragon out right in addition to killing the mage on top who failed his 4+ Ward save. The men of the Empire cheered as the beast fell to it's ruin before the Steam tank. Meanwhile the archers on the right won the combat against the elves but the fight continued.



High Elf turn 2

Respectably, the elf player continued to push forward, both of my cannons on the flank were charged, the main even force moved up, a unit of reavers moved behind the wall. Magic was uneventful, I had to let mindrazor on the pheonix guard go to stop pit of shades on my spearmen. The archers broke the reavers and pursued into the eagle lurking behind them but failed to catch the fast cav.



Empire Turn 3

I moved the Steam tank into a posistion to flank the Phoenix guard, the infantry moved up to support the steam tank. The big archer unit moved up to provide it's steadfast to it's detachments. Magic saw Birona's Timewarp cast on the Steam tank, tired to net the Phoenix Guard but it was dispelled. Archers tried to plink a few reavers but no luck; the steam tank used all it's steam moving. A cannon was destroyed in combat but the reavers could,t over run, the archers and one of the cannon crews continued to battle the eagles.



High Elf turn 3

The High Elves Manouvered to face the Steam Tank, The reavers that destroyed the cannon charged the engineer next to the remaining canon [Not Pictured! Oops] running him through and into the next cannon which was destroyed, leaving both elf unit to reform. The remaining unengaged reavers charged the large archer unit, stand and shoot was in effective. The fleeing reavers rallied and shot down the unegaged archer detachment. The High elf Mage did the same trick again, threatening Pit of shades and drawing my dispel dice to cast Mindrazor. This made me regret using my dispel scroll in the first turn.



Empire Turn 4

The Steam Tank went full steam ahead towards the Sea Guard rather than dealing with the Mindrazored Phoenix Guard, I rolled 16" on three dice  combing with Time Warp this made for a stellar 32" movement! CHOO CHOO! The tank went crashing into the Seaguard, who failed their Terror test on impact fleeing 10" running down the Seaguard due to the immense distance of the charge. [We did inquire as to whether the tank should have stopped where it had originally collided with the elves, but the club ref said that the 32" was part of the tanks main move and the elves would have to out pace it to avoid being overrun] the magically enhanced tank literally went to town as it disappeared off the back of the board, leaving the Imperial commanders to ponder what the hell just happened. The Wizard cast time warp on the spearman unit, but didn't get speed of light off, I also go the 5++ ward of on the spears, to prepare for the crunch. Not on the map but the eagle also ran down the archer detachment it was fighting bring it to just behind the halberdiers.



High Elf Turn 4

Phoenix Guard, The reavers and both the Eagles all charged the spearmen unit, The third unit of reavers charged the large archer unit alongside their comrades.  Magic saw a six dice mind razor on the Phoenix guard, I had to let it go as i used my dice to stop a boosted mystifying miasma being casted on the spears. Combat saw the large archer unit destroyed with one unit of reavers restraining and the other running the unit down. The Big combat was pretty equal due to both sides having always strike first so the elves lost their initiative re-rolls, the phoenix guard only felled eight and the supporting flankers added another two kills, in return my spears with additional attacks felled six guard, took the last wound off one of the eagles, and the first off another and my general wounded the arch mage. I slightly lost the combat but held due to steadfast. Praise be to Sigmar for that 5++ ward save.



Empire Turn 5

Here comes the crunch! The Halberdiers flanked the Phoenix guard, but clipped the eagle both reaching them, it was killed out right and my opponent allowed me to overrun into the flank of the guard. Magic saw both Warrior priests get the 5++ ward save off but not the re-rolls to wound, the elves struck first this time but the damage was negligible against so many state troopers killing enough to cover their losses however, the spears chipped a few elves away and the halberdiers hitting on threes with hatred cleaned off an entire elf rank. Unfortunately the elves held. The Steam tank returned from it's jaunt to town but would play no further part in the battle.



High Elf turn 5

Both Reavers tried a charge on the rear of the halberdiers only the small unit succeeded, magic was uneventful, the last reavers tried to shoot the Huricanium but did nothing. The combat saw the last of the elves fall before the combined attacks of both units, the halberdiers lost two men the rear charge but slew their attackers in return, my general landed his great weapon onto the elf archmage taking his final wounds, and more Phoenix guard fell before the pikes and halberds of the state troops, the survivors fled and were run down by the spearmen with the halberdiers reforming to face the last of the reavers. At this point the elf player conceded. Three elves remained to survey the carnage.



Averland Victorious!

Review

My large state troop blocks work well if they can combine the efforts against a single superior foe. The Steam tank really pulled it out of the bag this game and will now be forsaken by the dice gods unless a sufficient sacrifice is found. I wasn't too happy about the placement of my artillery pieces this game but under the circumstances I think it was likely that I lose my support units; they bought enough time for the big units to get the job done. Luckily the high elf chaff units weren't big enough to break steadfast meaning the state troops could stay in the fight against the Phoenix guard. Overall the game looked ropey at first but the removal of the big High Elf threats in the early game meant I could shift the balance before the game came down to the combat grind in the latter stages.

Thanks for reading!

[Cal1989]

Hello again,

I'm recording my journey through my Local Gaming Group's Knock Fantasy tournament. The game was 2000pts no restrictions. But I wouldn't know my opponent until the day of the game. I ran with my general all comers list, expecting to face either Ogres, Warriors, Daemons, High Elves, Orcs or Bretonnians.

As it happened my first game was against a High Elf player with Teclis leading the way.

My List was as follows:

Lords

Wizard Lord - Level 4 Lore of Light, Dispel Scroll, Talisman of Preservation -270pts

Heroes

Captain - BSB, Full Plate Armor, Enchanted Shield, Dawnstone Warrior Bane - 126pts

Warrior Priest - Hvy Armour Great Weapon Opal Amulet -87pts

Warrior Priest - Heavy Armour Great Weapon Dragon Helm Ironcurse Icon -87pts

Engineer - 65pts

Battle Wizard - Level 1 Lore of Life - 65pts

Core

40 Halberdiers - Full command - 270pts

40 Spearmen - Full Command -270pts

10 Archers -70pts

10 Archers - 70pts

Special

1x Great Cannon -120pts

Rare

1x Hurricanium -130pts

1x Helblaster -120pts

1x Steam Tank - 250pts

The Elf player ran:

Teclis

2 Level 2 mages both with High Magic

A mounted Noble with star lance and a ward save talisman

46 Lothern Sea gurad with Full command

10 Dragon Princes - Full command

2x Bolt throwers.

1x Flamespire Pheonix

We rolled Watch Tower as the Scenario for the Battle.

Deployment



The elf player finished deploying first as he only had 4 drops. I concentrated on one side of the tower as I believed splitting my force around the tower would have been risky due to the mobility and power of the dragon princes. I struggled to deploy my steam tank as I didnt want it to get singled out or stranded away from the action.

High Elf Turn 1

The High Elf player began by moving his Flamespire Phoenix over the watchtower the creatures ability was ineffective and failed to kill any archers (it was hard to represent this on the Map but the tower had a large concourse jutting out which i had my archer models set up on so the Phoenix counted as passing over them). I think the he was hoping to toast the archers from the building and move in with his Sea-guard. Due to the archers survival the sea-guard walked up and prepared their bows. Due to the Dragon Princes placement behind the woods I assumed they had the ranger standard; but it turns out they didn't and just moved up 9" instead.
    The Magic phase was weak 3&1 for winds with no elf channels, I channeled an extra one. He tried a large fire ball on the archers in the tower but rolled poorly even with the +5 from Teclis only just meeting the casting value. I got a double 6 in my roll so it was cancelled out. Shooting saw four archers in the tower die from a volley from the archers and a broadside from the repeater on hill but they didn't panic. The second bolt thrower took two wounds from the Steam Tank. No Combat.

 
Empire Turn One

Movement saw me considering throwing the Spearmen into the Flamespire, but I decided the artillery could deal with it and just redressed my lines.  I wanted to move the Steam Tank out of the line of fire so generated three steam. I put two into movement in the hopes of getting out of the way and saving one for the cannon. I rolled an 11 which meant the Steam Tank crashed headlong into the Flamespire!
Magic saw a 6&3 rolled and I got a channel and the extra dice from the hurricanium. I tried to regen a wound on the steam tank by casting earthblood on the archer bunker but failed to cast. The wizard lord rolled net of amytok on the sea-guard which got through and speed of light on the steam tank. Shooting got me a wound on the bolt thrower on the hill from the archers in the tower, the blaster killed about 7 sea-guard and the cannon fell short. Moving on to combat and the tank rolled an impressive 9 impacts resulting in 6 wounds on the Phoenix; it failed five of it's six ward saves and and promptly exploded failing to harm the Steam Tank. Choo Choo!


 
High Elf Turn 2



The Elf infantry pass their strength test to move. The Dragon Princes move up to support the the infantry; Magic saw a weak roll 1&2, with the attempt to cast being failed thanks to the net of amytok, a few elves die as a result. Shooting sees the elves also fail their strength test killing another two. The bolt throwers plink a few more archers out of the building so two remain; they pass their panic.

Empire Turn 2

The Halberdiers move up to the small corpse of trees to threaten the Dragon Princes flank, the spears move to make sure they're contacted before the helblaster in case of a charge. I put three dice into the steam tanks movement hoping to contact the dragon princes but it come up a few inches short. Drat. Magic saw the 5++ ward cast on the halberdiers. I again fail to cast with my level 1. Level 4 puts speed of light on the steam tank and net is dealt with by teclis' special scroll causing my wizard to forget the net. Shooting saw four dragon princes fall to a particularly large helblaster volley. The archers in the tower get lucky and finish off the bolt thrower on the hill/shrine. The cannon kills two elves :S and the steam tank has no steam left. Fortunately the Dragon Princes fail their panic test due to the casualties they suffered.



High Elf Turn 3

Dragon Princes Rally. The Seaguard Spearmen charge the Steam Tank, my stand and shoot (using the Engineer's pistol) kills three elves. Magic saw 11 Dice to my 6. I knew what was coming but I couldn't stop it, Teclis casts a six dice mindrazor on the elf unit gets double 6's, the tank has eight wounds left before the combat. The miscast but a wound on all the Elven casters except Teclis,  Another elf caster casts Hand of Glory on his unit champ but only gets 1+ to all stats, I let it go to stop Teclis which was a boosted harmonic convergence, A further spell was cast which I had to used my scroll on but it escapes me at the moment, It was from the lore of high magic though :S . Shooting sees two halberdiers die to the bolthrower. Combat; The elves pass their fear test... just. Mindrazored super elves saw that 7 wounds were put on the Steam Tank meaning it held on one wound despite the elves great strength, WS and I 10 helped greatly in the situation. The engineer kills an elf in return.



Empire turn Three

Between the narrow gap between the watchtower and the back of the Steam Tank I was unsure if my spear men could fit to help in the combat, ultimately the distance involved in charge caused me to hold my spearmen back from the Mindrazored elves, I also didn't want to set an easy flank charge up for the dragon princes. I put all 5 steam points down for the tank hoping to blow it and open the elves up to a broadside from the volley gun and the cannon. Instead I roll low and only get an emergency vent which kills a few elves and as a result I loses all my steam so cannot do anything this turn! Curses! Magic saw me boosted the halberdiers with the 5++ from the warrior priest in the unit and I also put speed of light on them but i don't get re-rolls to wound. The 5++ is dispelled on my spears and earthblood is dispelled to stop any chance of the Steam tank getting a wound back. Shooting sees the Dragon Princes lose another two knights to the blaster (my opponent rolled an ungodly amount of sixes for armour and wards). Combat sees the tank loses its final wound before the engineer can even strike the elves reform to face my spears.



High Elf Turn 4

The Dragon Princes charge into the Halberdiers and the Sea Guard charge the Spearmen. Magic sees another six dice irresistable force mindrazor from Teclis which buffs the seaguard but kills the two level two mages in the unit as a result of the miscast having lost a wound each from the previous miscast. Shooting sees two archers in the tower die  Combat sees the Dragon Princes killed out right after killing only two halberdiers, the Prince survived but fled and the halberdiers tried to catch him to net his points but failed going five inches forward. I really should have reformed to face the rear of the seaguard. Comabt against the seaguard sees 12 Spearmen die but in return I killed Teclis with 7 attacks, and killed two with my warrior priest and an extra one or two fell to the remaining spearmen. I narrowly lost the combat but was steadfast leadership 8, failed on the first roll, and failed the re-roll too! (rolled a 9 then a 10). So the spearmen headed for the hills, the pursuing seaguard ran into the volleygun. The Hurricanium past it's panic test.



Empire Turn 4

The hurricanium charged into the now leaderless sea guard, just to help hold them up. I reformed the halberdiers to face the rear of the seaguard hoping for a rear charge next turn. The spearmen rallied and the wizard lord and archer bunker moved into the tower. Magic I cast Speed of Light on the Helblaster on four dice , my opponent let it through. I tried to get a boosted Shems off on two dice on the prince but it was dispelled. My remaining dice got the wards saves on the halberdiers but no the re-rolls to wound. I also tried to shoot the prince too, got 4 hits but wounds and armour protected him. Combat saw a few elves trampled by impact hits, the elves managed to kill the Helblaster but only just, the elves didn't wound the hurricanium and the crew and horses did a bit of damage in return, resulting in a small loss for me but the hurricanium held.



My opponent conceded at this point as the game was pretty much over in terms of securing the tower or winning by VP's.

All the Elves had at the end was about 17 sea guard a bolt thrower and the fleeing prince. I had the tower and had only lost 10 archers, the steam tank and the blaster (the spearman's banner too).
 

[SorenJ]

Nice army, I've always wanted to play something like that and now I have proof that it works.
On a side note. Did you stand and shoot with the STank? I'm no rules expert, but thought that wasn't allowed.
Why do you put the dispell scroll on the lvl 4? Isn't it better to stick it on the lvl1, in case the lvl4 fails a dispell attempt.

[Cal1989]

Hey, Cheers for the post. The Dispel scroll on the wizard was an oversight due to me adding the Level 1 in last minute, I usually only play with one level 4 at 2000pts and then with the tournament lists  being locked after submission I couldn't swap things even though that's what I originally intended :S. The stand and shoot from the steam tank was using the engineers repeater pistol which I assumed would be allowed as it was in the opponents turn and he's not using any of the other steam tank mechanisms, it might actually be worth finding out if if can react this way; I've never had an opponent complain though.

[SorenJ]

Yep he can S&S. I forgot he had Rpistol. You must have rolled pretty good though. 

[Cal1989]

Yeah 2 5's and a 6, three wounds with no armour saves; shame the elves where strength ten.

[Cal1989]

Knock Out Tournament Game 2

Empire vs Bretonnia - Blood & Glory

I had to play my good friend and most frequent gaming opponent in this game. Same list as the last game:

My opponent ran:

Bretonnian Lord: Mounted with sword of swift slaying
Mounted Damsel Lvl 4 lore if heavens.
Mounted BSB - Gromil great helm.
Paladin on Foot with sword of Anti-Heroes
Level2 Damsel on foot with law of beasts and prayer icon.

50 men At arms with full command.
12 Knights of the Realm with Full Command.
10 Archers with defensive stakes
10 Archers with defensive stakes
2x Trebuchets
4 Pegasus Knights with Full Command.

Deployment


As we rolled blood and glory both armies were quite concentrated in the center of the battlefield, I had 5 fortitude and my opponent had 6. I had a strong central block with both my cannons aiming at my opponents trebuchets. I rolled Speed of Light, Light of Battle, Net of Amytok and Banishment for my level 4 and Flesh to Stone for my Level 1.  My opponent had Curse of the Midnight wind, Comet, chain lightning and Iceshard Blizzard for his level for and Wyssans and Amber spear for his level 2.

Empire Turn 1



I started by foolishly trying to charge the Pegasus knights with my archers on the altar hill, they rolled short and just made the charge easier for my opponent next turn. The steam tank generated three steam and moved to point it's cannon at the trebuchet on the right whilst my cannon lined up on the one on the left. The infantry moved to support the tank. Magic saw a boosted banishment cast on the Pegasus knights which caused three wounds on them unfortunately not enough to cause a panic check. Net was dispelled and I tried to cast flesh to stone on the archers near the Pegasus knights but failed. Shooting saw both cannons fall short, the helblaster was out of range and couldn't see the long-bowmen on the far left and the archers in the tower killed two long-bowmen across from them.

Bretonnia Turn 1



The pegasus knights charged the archers, I stood and tried to plink that last wound off to cause a panic check but failed to wound. The rest of the Bretonnian force moved forward. Magic was effectively shut down due to a poor roll on winds. The Longbowmen peppered my lines to minimal effect; however the shock came from both trebuchets landing direct hits on the steam thank for a grand total of seven wounds. Combat saw the archers routed but the knights failed to catch them.

Empire Turn 2



I Moved everything over as much as I could to stop the Pegasus Knights from being able to sweep right behind my infantry without exposing themselves to the Helblaster. The archers rallied, the steam tank tried to generate steam points but lost them due to an overpressure. Magic saw me try to cast both Net and Banishment on the Pegasus knights in a close magic phase. I drew out the scroll for Banishment and net was dispelled. Everything that could target the Pegasus knights did so to no effect. The cannon was out of grape shot range so had a last ditch effort at the trebuchet; only doing a single wound!. The Helblaster still had no targets.

Bretonnia Turn 2



The Pegasus knights charged the archers, no wounds from stand and shoot. Everything else stayed out of Volleygun range. Magic was again ineffective. Shooting saw another direct hit on the steam tank, causing enough wounds to destroy it. The second trebuchet got a direct hit my spearmen killing about 8 I rolled well with the Ironcurse Icon. Combat saw the Pegasus knights destroy the archers and over run into the cannon's flank.

Empire Turn 3



Due to the Mexican standoff developing in the Midfield I only shuffled a few units around to try and encourage my opponent to try a long charge. Looking back now I should have moved Forward aggressively to stop the trebuchets from raining geological hell down on my men! Even if it resulted in them getting charged. The engineer made a dash for the volley gun.  Magic saw a banishment stopped on the wounded trebuchet, Light of battle was cast on the Halberdiers and Flesh to stone on the spearmen. Shooting saw a  few more longbow men die on the far side. Combat saw the cannon destroyed with the Pegasus knights overrunning into my halberdier's rear. It was hard to portray on the map but due to the angles involved the flank of one of the Pegasus knight's bases touched the rear of my halberdiers. I let him have the charge rather then stop short so they were bogged down and could be dealt with.

Bretonnia Turn 3



No movement to write home about. Magic saw a 6&3 for winds, I made three out of four channels resulting in 9PD vs 9DP. My opponent first cast chain lightening on my spearmen which was stopped. An amber spear on my spears  which I let through (2 Killed) as I saw he was setting aside 6 dice for a Comet. Inevitably this resulted in an irresistible comet cast behind my lines. The miscast wounded 5 knights but they all made there blessing saves; the prophetess also suffered a wound as did the Bretonnian Lord.  Shooting saw rocks continue to rain on my units, killing more spearmen with a direct hit and destroying the helblaster with a direct hit. I proceeded to roll my opponents artillery dice several times to make sure it wasn't loaded, I rolled three misfires  (Sidenote: I've played my opponent a million times before and he's never been this luckily, I was genuinely shocked.) Combat saw my heroes and halberdiers kill the Pegasus knights out right whilst only suffering a few casualties.

At this Point fortitude for both armies stood at 5 each with a breaking point of two. I had claimed the banner of the Pegasus knights.

Empire Turn 4



Everything moved up to get out of the way of the comet, the engineer continued to head for the ruin but there was no more artillery for him to tinker with. Magic saw the 5++ prayer cast on both units but Speed of Light and Flesh to stone were stopped and failed to cast respectively on the spearmen. The main factor though was the comet crashing down which killed roughly 8 men from each of the state troop units, killed the engineer outright and wounded the Hurricanium twice. The Spearmen now stood a roughly 16 models the halberdiers were in better shape at about 28. Shooting again was minimal.

Bretonnia Turn 4



The Bretonnian lines stirs and moves forward but surprisingly no charges were declared. Magic was minimal with a wyssans wildform  being stopped by my dispel dice and a chain lightningon the knights finally drawing my scroll, the final dice saw my opponent attempt another comet on two dice, it failed fortunately. Shooting saw more one trebuchet target my wizard bunker but it scattered resulting in one death. *Applause for the first scatter of the game!* The second one tried the same trick but was firing in direct and scattered off despite rolling a hit.

Empire Turn 5



The Archers move out of the ruin to bring my wizard into range for some boosted AoE spells. (Note: I did rotate my halberdiers to face towards the knights hoping to draw them away from my Wizard bunker/ General. So their position on the Bretonnian Turn 5 is accurate.) The 5++ Prayer was cast on my spearmen but was dispelled, with the same happening with my halberdiers. Speed of Light was cast boosted and flesh to stone was cast on the archer unit. Shooting None. Combat none.

Bretonnia Turn 5



The knights of the realm charge the depleted unit of spearmen, surprisingly the Men at Arms stayed still, I was genuinely surprised by this but I didn't say anything. Magic saw a few attempts at spells, perhaps curse of the midnight wind was cast. but I stopped wyssans from going through on the knights. The trebuchet's finally started to scatter but I lost a few more halberdiers. The few remaining spear men I think roughly 11 and The warrior priest are easily crushed by the Knights and the Lord and BSB on the charge. The overrun took them into my archers including my general.

Fortitude; Empire 4  - Bretonnia 5 - Breaking Point 2

Empire Turn 6



Final turn, I threw everything into the flank of the Knights of the realm, luckily all charges were successful. Magic a big Phase a 6&5 with +1 one from the hurricanium and an extra two channels which were redundant, I first tried to cast a boosted light of battle it cast but was dispelled, I then got 5++ ward on the Halberdiers but not the re-rolls to wound. I tried flesh to stone on the archers but failed, with my final 4 dice I got through the boosted speed of light my opponent had two dispel dice left but failed to get a double 6. Combat sword the Bretonnian Lord strike first but he only managed a wound on my Level 1. The impact hits on my hurricanium failed to kill anything. The rest of the combat saw 7 knights of the realm die and an extra wound put on the Bretonnian Lord. My opponent focussed as many attacks as he could into my general but the 4++ ward save prevented all but one wound. Combat swung drastically in my favour which resulted in the Knight unit breaking from combat despite a BSB re-roll and the hurricanium running them down. This took my opponent past breaking point handing me the game. Extremely hard fought and ultimately I got luckily to pull this off as breaking the knights reduced my opponents fortitude by 4 (2 for the general, 1 for the BSB and 1 for the unit banner) combined with sneaking the banner from the Pegasus knights earlier I stole the game.

END GAME - Empire Fortitude 4 - Bretonnian Fortitude 1 - Breaking point 2.


An extremely tense and close game which I was actually considering conceding at the end of my fifth turn. Well fought by my opponent and one of the only times I've felt outclassed on the table top.

I will now be moving on to the semi finals of the tournament.

Thanks for reading.

[SorenJ]

I build your army using armybuilder. It only adds up to 1960 points. Is there something missing from your list?
Who is the general - I'm assuming its one of the warrior priests.

[Cal1989]

It's definately 2000pts, I hope it is anyway! Unless its magic items? My Wizard has the 4++ Ward save talisman and a scroll. Additionally my warrior priests and captain have a few trinkets between them.

[SorenJ]

It's definately 2000pts, I hope it is anyway! Unless its magic items? My Wizard has the 4++ Ward save talisman and a scroll. Additionally my warrior priests and captain have a few trinkets between them.

You listed the wrong points for the spear and halberds.

[Cal1989]

Oh Right, the spearman have shields so that'll even out the points.

[SorenJ]

Ok - that explains it. I'm shamelessly copying your list, hoping to try it out soon. Although instead of shields on the spearmen, I replaced one of the WP with an AL.

[Cal1989]

Knock out Tournament Game 3 (17/7/14)

Empire Versus Nurgle Daemons

Scenario: Battle for the Pass

Armylists: Empire

Lords

Wizard Lord - Level 4 Lore of Light, Dispel Scroll, Talisman of Preservation -270pts

Heroes

Captain - BSB, Full Plate Armor, Enchanted Shield, Dawnstone Warrior Bane - 126pts

Warrior Priest - Hvy Armour Great Weapon Opal Amulet -87pts

Warrior Priest - Heavy Armour Great Weapon Dragon Helm Ironcurse Icon -87pts

Engineer - 65pts

Battle Wizard - Level 1 Lore of Life - 65pts

Core

40 Halberdiers - Full command - 270pts

40 Spearmen - Full Command -270pts

10 Archers -70pts

10 Archers - 70pts

Special

1x Great Cannon -120pts

Rare

1x Hurricanium -130pts

1x Helblaster -120pts

1x Steam Tank - 250pts

Nurgle

Flying Daemon Prince with mark of Nurgle, Balesword and Stream of Corruption  (Str 2 Breath Weapon no armour saves) and Chaos Armour. Level 3 Lore of Death.

Epidermis on a Paliquin

Herald of Nurgle - Level 1 Lore of Death Battle Standard.

24 Plauge Bearers - Full Command Warbanner.

16 Plauge Bearers - Full Command -Lichbone Pennant

2 Bases of Nurglings

1 Beast of Nurgle

1 Beast of Nurgle

1 Beast of Nurgle

1x Soul Grinder (The Big half daemon defiler beastie)

Spells

Level 4 Lore of Light: Shems Burning Gaze, Light of Battle, Banishment and Timewarp
Level 1 Lore of Life: Earthblood

Daemon Prince Level 3 Lore of Death: Bjunas Fate, Soulblight and The Caress of Laniph/Spirit Leech
Herald Lvl 1 Lore of Death: Purple Sun.

Deployment

The awful board we had to play on... I original protested playing on the board until they took off the castle walls connecting the towers. Damn 40k players setting up terrain.


As we were playing length ways I set up roughly 16" From the board Edge and took up a defensive position between two towers. My Wizard Bunker occupied one tower my Helblaster took position in front of them with my cannon on the far left covering half the board. The steam tank took the far right covering that sector. With the infantry and Hurricanium forming up around a solitary tree in the middle of the board.





The daemon player pushed up as far as possible, his Soul Grinder behind a watchtower out of sight of any artillery, His Daemon Prince took the extreme left of his deployment. The Nurglings failed to charge. The big Plague Bearer unit was next to the Grinder with Two beasts of Nurgle screening them. On his far right the Plague Bearers led by Epidermis faced my artillery and archers but were screened by a beast of Nurgle. The Two bases of Nurglings deployed just over 12" away from my Volleygun.



Empire Turn 1

I Move forward slightly with my infantry to redress the as There is no need to cover both sides of the tower as one flank is loaded with all the big hitters and the other is pretty light on the ground. The Steam tank moves up 7" giving line of sight with it's cannon on the Daemon Prince. Magic sees an un-boosted shem's cast on the Nurglings, it gets through and does 3 wounds. A boosted banishment is cast on the Soulgrinder causing two wounds. Shooting sees the two units of archers fail to put any extra wounds on the nurglings, meaning the halblaster has to step in, I roll a 14 but because I wanted to use the engineers BS to counter the skirmish modifier I re-roll one of the four's and get a misfire; 7 shots a few hits and only two wounds one base remains looking to charge my blaster.  The cannon overshoots the Plauge bearer unit containing Epidermis. The Steam Tank scores a direct hit on the daemon prince... wounds... the daemon fails his ward save... ... ... I roll a 1 on the D6 wounds!


Nurgle Turn 1

I was thinking my steam tank was gonna be on the receiving end of a Daemon prince charge but it was not the case. The Soulgrinder moved up to take on the Tank. The daemon prince flew behind the tower on my right threatening my infantry blocks; everything else moved up as much as it could. Magic saw an attempt at Fate of Bjuna being made on my BSB but it was dispelled, my opponent then failed to cast Soulblight on my halberdiers.  The level one Herald  tried to cast Purple Sun on the last two dice going for double sixes but failed to cast.

Empire Turn 2

I reform my lines to box in the Daemon Prince, although as it would seem he was not entirely blocked in. The steam tank generated 4 Steam and Crashed Headlong into the Soul Grinder using three dice for movement. Magic saw a boosted Banishment cast on the Daemon Prince causing an extra wound, I only used four dice but it produced a miscast, taking a wound from both my Level 1, Level 4 and the warrior priest in the Spearman unit, It burnt off the opal amulet from my other warrior priest it took away all but two dice. The level 1 cast earthblood on the archers in the tower to put a wound back on the Wizard Lord my opponent dispelled it though. The archers failed to kill of the nurglings so they had to be helblastered off the board, although my engineer got involved again and half it's shots down from 22 to 11. The cannon targeted the Nurgle beast screening Epidermis' unit missed the mark, over shot and planted itself straight on top of Epidermis' himself killing him out right and plowing through a plague bearer behind. Combat saw the Steam Tank kill the Soulgrinder out right from impacts hits it caused 9 hits 7 wounds and my opponent failed 5 of it's wards saves.

Nurgle Turn 2

The Daemon prince declared a charge on the Hurricanium, I opted to flee, so the daemon prince re-directed into the halberdiers as the spearmen where out of sight from his starting position behind the tower. The spearmen weren't panicked by the hurricanium and the halberdiers past their terror test. The rest of his army moved up as far as possible. Magic was again shut down as Soul blight was dispelled and the level one failed to get purple sun off. The daemon prince did enough damage to win the combat but the halberdiers held out he killed about 8-9 men but used his attacks thunderstomp and breath weapon to do this and all my characters were intact.

Empire Turn 3

I was originally planning on throwing the Spearmen into the flank of the Daemon prince to hopefully try and pop with combat resolution but decided that with the big plaugebearer unit and two beast of nurgle on their flank was two much of a risk so they moved up to block the beasts of nurgle from entering the combat between the halberdiers and daemon prince. The Steam tank charged the big plaguebearers flank.



The Hurricanium rallied but would be out of position for the next few turns. Big magic phase 12 to 6 for winds, I had a Shem's Burning Gaze dispelled against one of the Beasts of Nurgle; but I did manage to get The timewarp through on the halberdiers and the re-rolls to wound from the priest, unfortunately the 5++ was stopped. I also manged to get Earthblood through giving my level 4 all her wounds back and the 5++ ward on the spearmen. Shooting saw the leading beast peppered with arrow fire to no effect, the helblaster took a wound off after faffing around and halving the shots yet again (I just imagined he had his tie caught in the mechanism somewhere). The cannon over shot the beast but plinked off a plague bearer. from the unit behind. Combat was a bit more even sided I managed a wound on the daemon coming from a regular halberdier no less, I lost a few more men in return, I again lost the combat but held anyways. The Steam tank crushed several plague bearers and steamed a few more and suffered no wounds in return. The daemons still had 3 ranks a banner, a battle standard and a warbanner in the unit so reduced the damage caused by the tank and past their instabiltiy test.



Nurgle Turn Three

Both Beasts of Nurgle near the Prince charged the front of the Spearmen, the big plaugebearers reformed to face the tank. The Beast and the smaller plague bearer unit on the flank also pushed forwards. Magic saw another attempt at Soulblight dispelled and purple sun failed to cast. Combat saw more halberdiers die but one of the halberdiers scored a wound on the priest the combat was a tie but the Prince lost due to the musician, but past his instability test. The tank suffered no wounds and the combat continued. The Spearmen lost a few men to the beasts but held fast.
 
Empire Turn 4

The Hurricanium finally got back into position to support the combats, the steam tank suffered 2 wounds from a misfire but generated 5 steam as a result grinding more daemons in the process. Magic saw Speed of Light cast on four dice with a miscast same result as last time, which killed the warrior priest in the spear men and wounding the warrior priest in the halberdiers, but failed to harm the wizards, earthblood was cast on the archers in the tower giving a wound back to my level 1 (the warrior priest was out of range) but my re-rolls to wound was stopped on the halbs. Shooting saw the beast of nurgle take some wounds the halblaster caused three and the archers failed to finish it off.The cannon stepped in to finish it off however. Combat saw the daemon prince makehis last few kills before the final two wounds made it through to kill it. The last wound coming from my warrior priest's great weapon. (That's one daemon prince each now for my Priests.) The Steam tank steam clean a few more plague bearers (Engineer Otto Von Carius had taken to loading the steamgun with Cilit bang for added deadliness). The Herald did get a wound through in return though. A few spearmen died and the fight continues. (The Halberdier lost 22 men fighting the daemon prince)

Nurgle turn four

The  plague bearers continue marching towards the gunline. Magic was shutdown. Combat saw another wound on the Steam Tank.
The Spearmen scored a wound on one of the beasts and two on another, winning the combat and popping both the beasts after the death of their leader lowered their leadership considerably. (The Spearmen lost 9 men in total fighting the beasts)

Empire Turn 5

The wizard bunker moved out of the tower towards the steam tank combat, following in the wake of the infantry the hurricanium moved up to, the archers in the wood shot the approaching plague bearers killing one. Magic was ineffective due to lack of targets, I got the wound back on the warrior priest and tried the Hurricaniums spell on the remaining plague bearers it was dispelled .The Helblaster rolled 22 for its shots, I re-rolled the 2 and got a 10, this barrage wiped out the remaing plauge bearers on that flank. The steam tank killed a few more plaugebearers but suffered one in return, damn poison! And poor armour save rolling.

Nurgle Turn 5

Another wound on the Steam tank, no magic

Empire Turn 6

Halberdeirs charge the flank of the Plaguebearers, the Spearmen occupy the nearby building, the hurricanium moves to support. Magic sees some buffs cast on the halbs. (I forget to generate steam). No shooting the daemons suffer several wounds but past their instability.

Nurgle Turn 6

With only their comannd group and herald remaining the daemons suffer enough casualties to pop the Herald at the end of the combat. No magic was successfully cast by the daemons this turn, meaning that they didn't get a spell off at all the entire game.








More to Follow>>>.

[Cal1989]

So it came to the final of the Gaming Club's Tournament. Playing an experienced opponent using Vampire Count's, I actually hadn't seen him play so far in this tournament and only had a rough idea of his army going into the game. My army is the same as the previous three games.

Vampires.

Vampire Lord - Level 3 Lore of Vampires, Unnatural Horror, Mounted on a Barded Nightmare, with a 1+ re-rollable armour save a 4++ ward save and an ogre blade.
Necromancer - Level 2 Lore of Vampires

30 Skeleton Warriors - Full Command Shield
25 Ghouls with Ghast
20 Dire Wolves
20 Dire Wolves
8 Crypt Horrors with Champion
5 Blood Knights with Full Command and Drakenhoff Banner

Scenario - Battleline

Deployment.

I castled up my forces around the hill line and along a walled area in front of marsh. My opponent had His Dire wolves on the flanks with his Crypt Horrors shielding the Blood Knights and the Skellies and Ghouls on either side of this central block.

Spells - Lvl 4 Lore of Light Shems, Banishment, Speed of Light , Bironas Timewarp (Could of done with Light of Battle)
            Lvl 1 Earthblood

         - Vampire Lord Lvl 3 Invocation of Nehek(?), Gaze of Nagash, Curse of Years
           Necromancer Lvl 2 - Invocation of Nehek & Wind of Death.



Vampire Counts Turn 1

Luckily the Dire Wolves couldn't charge the artillery so they  moved right up instead. Everything else was a general advance; magic was effectively shut down. No shooting, No combat. Turn Over.



Empire Turn 1

No charges, I moved my archers right up to the dire wolves to block them and hopefully reduce there numbers with shooting, I wanted to move the steam tank up to get a better shot on the blood knights, I rolled a 12 so it steamed off well ahead of the rest of my army. Magic saw a Shem's Burning Gaze get through on the crypt horrors which killed one and wounded another, I also got banishment off on the horrors but only rolled a 4 on 3d6 :S causing two wounds the crypt horrors were down to 6 models. I cast Speed of Light on the archers in front of the wolves, and my prayers got dispelled on my state troops. Shooting saw the Cannon aimed at the Vampire Lord who couldn't benefit from a Look Out Sir due to his unit also have a champion. The cannonball hit the back of the crypt horrors before bouncing directly into the vampire lord, unfortunately I rolled a 1 when rolling to wound the cyrpt horror and failed to kill it. The Steam tank completely over shot the blood knights. The archers in the marsh failed to wound the Crypt Horrors, the archers in front of the dire wolves killed two, the Helblaster aimed at the wolves in front I rolled 22 on the shots bit was using the engineer so had to re-roll a dice, I picked up the 2 and promptly rolled a misfire, halving my shots to ten, killing 8 dire wolves. Halving the Dire Wolf unit was nice but it could have be fully wiped out if my rolls had been better.



Vampires Turn 2



The ghouls piled into the steam tank, the crypt horrors charged the halberdiers and the dire wolves charged the archers. Some dire wolves were replaced by an invocation as well as wounds restored to the crypt horrors, I stopped curse of years on the halberdiers and gaze of nagash on the spearmen. The dire wolves won the combat but the archers held, the crypt ghouls caused a wound to the steam tank and the halberdiers suffered a few casualties but killed of the recently resurrected horror, the horrors just won the combat but the halbs held.

Empire Turn 2




The spearmen charged into help the steam tank, which suffered 3 wounds due to a dangerous overpressure bu was now fully loaded on steam. It proceeded to grind 10 or so ghouls to death. Magic was poor with only 3 dice, I tried to get soulfire off against the Horrors but it was dispelled my final two dice got the 5++ ward on the halbs. Shooting saw the engineer faff around with the volleygun again halving it's shots and proceeded to kill 8 skellies. The cannon again targeted the vampire lord with a good shot killing two blood knights despite the drakenhoff banner but the vampire lord past his ward save. Combat saw the steam tank kill another 9 ghouls the spearmen contributed a few attacks and the ghouls killed a spearmen in return combat res destroyed the unit (In hindsight the spearmen weren't needed as the steam tank would have dealt enough damage without their static res but as you have to resolve charges first. but ah well), the spears reformed to face the blood knights. The other two combats continued.

Vampire Turn 3



The Vampires closed in with the blood knights charging the now unengaged steam tank, the dire wolves charged the hurricanium which I'd moved up to protect the spearmens flank. The skellies continued to move forward. The magic saw the necromancer really boost the skeleton unit to over forty models bringing a blood knight back and restoring a wound on the crypt horrors. The rest of the phase saw me dispel both curse of years and wind of death. Combat saw the steam tank reduced to a single wound, unfortunately the hurricanium lost the combat by a single point and promptly ran off the board. the dire wolves overran into the spearmen's flank.

Empire Turn 3



The archers with the wizards move away from the gap left by the spears and the steam tank.The steam tank on one wound went whole hog generating five steam, getting an emergency vent result, failing to kill any blood knights with 11 strength 2 hits, and losing 3 steam points I threw the remaining two dice into a 2D3 grind and rolled snakes eyes, I did get lucky and killed two with the attacks but they still had full command and the vampire lord. Magic saw me finally get soulfire off on the halberdiers along with re-rolls to wound. Speed of light on the spearmen was dispelled but they did get the 5++ ward save off. Shooting saw me unload everything into the hefty new unit of Skellies culling them down to under 20 models as they were the only available target, the necromancer passed his look out sir unfortunately (Ironically cutting the skellies down to size and getting soulfire off were actually deterimental in the long term!). In combat I smacked the horrors around a bit leaving the horrors on with two models left and the second only had a single wound. The Spearmen won the dire wolf combat and reformed to face expecting a flank charge from the blood knights next turn which weren't big enough to break steadfast. The steam tank was finally over come and the blood knights had a nice flank charge set up.

Vampires Turn 4



The blood knights charge the spearmen's flank as expected. Then my opponent declared a rear charge on the spears and my face dropped, the big unwieldy unit of 45 skellies 9 ranks deep had no chance of fitting in the rear of that unit last turn, I actually measured it in the movement phase and the were too far away to flank; however as the skellies received a nice trim and the width of the crypt horrors had also been reduced they could now fit nicely.  They also made the 12" or so charge. Oh well there goes the neighbourhood. I did however shut down his magic phase. Combat was nice and brutal, I did lay in a few kills on the dire wolves about 7 in total, another few wounds on the skellies and a wound on the necromancer, I challenged the vampire lord with my unit champ but a blood knight accepted, I surprisingly survived his attacks but failed to get through his armour. The spears suffered a boat load of wounds, had no steadfast and were run down. Interestingly as my opponent elected to pursue with his blood knights and with the spears running from the largest unit (The Skellies) the Blood knights pursued straight into the front of the dire wolves. The Skellies turned to face the halberdiers flank. Fortunately the halbs finished off the crypt horrors and turned to face the skellies. The combat between the dire wolves and the archers near the artillery hill contined for a 6th combat phase with 4 archers fighting 5 dire wolves.

Empire Turn 4! Time for some Averland Fury



The Halberdiers successfully charged the skellies, magic was a big phase 12 to 6 and I managed to work several buffs on the Halberdiers including, Bironas Timewarp, Speed of Light, and Re-rolls to wound, and the 5++ ward save. My opponent threw all six of his dice stopping my banishment which I cast on the blood knights before getting the buffs off. Shooting saw the helbalster out of range but the cannon again scored a hit on the vampire lord who again made his ward save! It did kill a dire wolf behind though hooray!. Combat saw my halberdiers roll over the skellies without suffering a casualty, they were down to about 20-22 men after the crypt horror combat. They successfully then covered the 10" gap and overran into the rear of the blood knights! Unfortunately the remaining 5 dire wolves killed the remaining archers. I got complacent with this combat as it rumbled on. I could have easily detached the wizards from the archers and sent the second archer unit to deal with the wolves. In the end I think it was this combat that cost me the game.

Vampire Turn 5



The Dire wolves charged in to help the vampires against the Halberdiers. Whilst the second unit of dire wolves got a flank charge of on my wizard bunker. I dispelled both Invocation and Curse of Years. Combat saw my halberdier champion go down to the vampire Lord who challenged my BSB. In hindsight this turn my have been the best turn for my BSB to accept the Vampire's challenge being WS10/I10 ASF with a 5++ Ward and re-rolls to wound but only 3 strength 4 attacks I didn't fancy my chances of killing the beast with 5 strength 7 attacks. The result of the combat saw all of the blood knights killed under sheer weight of attacks the dire wolves received more of a beating but after combat res, there were still 4 dire wolves left and the vampire lord was down to two wounds. The dire wolves charging the flank of my archers lost the combat by by two and proceeded to flee, being run down taking my level 4 and general with it. This mistake was entirely avoidable and ultimately cost me the game.

Empire Turn 5



With my magic ability gone all my dice went into prayers, I got the ward save off but no the re-rolls to wound. Shooting saw the helblaster clear out the wolves that killed the wizard bunker. Combat was pretty tied up, I reduced the wolves down to two models but the halberdiers were now struggling to get through the vampires 1+ Armour and 4++ plus ward save. Due to some good saves from the warrior priests prayers The combat ended up tie, my musician put an extra wound on the vampire and killed another dire wolf. There was now one wolf left and the vampire was on one wound. I had my BSB on full wounds, a warrior priest on a single wound and 12 Halberdiers left. My artillery still held the hill with the engineer.

Vampire Turn 6



Straight into the magic phase (8 to 6) the vampire now uncontested restored the Dire wolves back up to 5 models and restored a wound on himself with invocation (4 to cast, 3 to dispel), he tried curse of years but I got a double 6 in three dice and stopped it (again 4 to cast, 3 to dispel tbh I should have put more into the invocation). The warrior priest was brought down by the dire wolves and the halberdiers killed two dire wolves in return but I now had no rank bonus, I however was still steadfast. Tactically I really wanted to run so that the vampire could be targetted by the cannon and helblaster. Stoically my BSB kept the halberdeirs in the fight.

Empire Turn 6



The Halberdiers failed their first fear test of the game. The Vampire finshed off the BSB with a large overkill, I think he got three wounds through. The dire wolves killed a few halberdiers and I killed none in return. I finally fled the combat and was run down by the vampire Lord who ended up sitting pretty 12" in front of the Helblaster whilst the last 4 wolves stumbled forward a few inches.


Conclusion

Small mistakes cost me this game and there was a lot of them, In deployment I think I should have kept the Spearmen and Halberdiers a lot closer together. The hurricanium was wasted fighting a unit of twenty dire wolves. The steam tank did it's job but by being charged by the vampire's unit really sealed its fate, I probably should have only moved it forward a single dice in the first turn. My counter attacking style wasn't suited to fighting unbreakbale opponents making every fight a fight to the finish. I unfortunately got several small magic phases which meant I could only get one or two buffs a turn off in the middle turns and due to my lines being spread out I couldn't bubble the effects of the lore of light spells. Ultimately my list lacks an effective way to kill a 450pt combat character without using my cannons; once that vampire was in combat he became virtually untouchable. My mistakes cost me this game but on the whole I think my army performed well and reducing my opponent to five models was quite an achievement. If I dealt sufficiently with the dire wolves near the artillery hill and kept my wizards alive the game would have been nearly exactly equal and would have resulted in a draw. Oh well, live and learn (In undeath I assume).

Thanks for reading my tournament reports! If you have any critique or helpful advice about any of the games please get in touch.

If anyone reading this is based in the Wigan area of the United Kingdom all of our games were played at the Wardens of the North gaming club based out of the DW Soccer Dome near Robin Park (DW Stadium, Wigan Athletic/Warriors ground).  The clubs open to all Games-workshop based games and currently meets on Thursday night's 18.00-22.30.

I'm next starting a Mordheim campaign at the club and looking at running a cavalry based Empire army after playing an infantry heavy army for the last 12 months or so.

Thanks again for reading.

Cal

[mrth0msen]

You don't HAVE to use the engineer reroll, you MAY use it. Depending on how much risk appetite you have, the odds are in your favor when rerolling a 2 on the artillery dice. You will usually gain more shots, but 1/6 you get half shots. The risk increases the more shots you have rolled on the other two dice.

[Fidelis von Sigmaringen]

He is playing according to the FAQ - which contradicts the AB and should therefore be best ignored. Here is an earlier discussion.

[Cal1989]

In a completely professional manner, I have chosen not to write up my last three battle reports as they were terrible, horribly unlucky and disastrous defeats of shameful proportions.  I did however defeat the Glottkin in a battle the week before and will hopefully look to get a report of that battle written up in the foreseeable future.

[undivided.capital]

It's a shame to hear the end times has taken such a toll of your forces.   

Looking forward to hearing how it went with Glottkin! Write it soon!

[Cal1989]

Finally Found Some Time over half term to get this stuff loaded up - sorry that I've got no battle chronicler pics the game was two months ago and rather hazy. Also apologies for the club photographer for taking these completely random shots.

My opponent had a straight up rush list - Glottkin - 6 Juggernauts of Khorne - 5 blight Knights - 40 Nurgle warriors with a BSB - 2 Chariots and a warshire. at 3000 points

I had my usual 2000 points list but with the state troops bulked up to 50, An Archlector on a War Altar, an Extra Cannon - 12 Huntsmen and my level 1 became a level 2.



Overall i used my archers and huntsmen to pester the flanks and march block the warriors and chariots on the far side, I split fire with magic, steam tank and one cannon dealing with glottkin and one cannon and the helblasters dealing with the chariot and the warriors- My state troops formed up around a large ruined tower with the spearmen looking to engage the warriors and preventing them get around my flanks. The Steam tank and the halberdiers faced off directly in front of glottkin with the war altar and the hurricannium behind, my wizard bunker took shelter in this area too.



The first turn went to chaos with a general advance - I shut down the Glottkins magic spells and with no shooting it was over to me. Movment closed up any gaps to stop things getting between my units. Magic was big with my opponent using a lot of dice to stop a boosted Shems Burning gaze leaving things open for a double banishment of the Glottkin, shame he still had regen but other wise 4 wounds on the glottkin straight away.The steam tank did an extra 3 and the first cannon over hit and cleaned out a blight knight about 8" behind. Helblaster took out 9 warriors and the final cannon took out one of the chariots.



Chaos continued there advance in the second turn, the chaos chariot turned to face my huntsmen on the far flank- the big warriors unit kept walking towards the helblaster. Magic was closed down again although I think Glottkin may have got a wound back with a small buff. In my second turn I threw my Halberdiers into a charge against Glottkin along with the steam tank for additional support who luckily generated enough steam. I threw a boosted ha's protection and Speed of light on the units in the glottkin combat but had time warp was dispelled and the 5++ ward on the Halberdiers got through but not flaming attacks. Turns out glottkin has to challenge, but the steam tank managed to get three wounds through with impact hits. Another twelve warriors died to the helblaster and the cannon nearest the warriors dealt with the warshirne tge. Cannon on the far side managed the strafing shot down the length of blood crushers killing three. The archers near the warriors moved to block them and the huntsmen continued to dance around the remaining chariot.



Third turn the tensing blood crushers joined the glottkin combat - in the front of the steam tank meaning only one could get into combat due to the glottkin overlap. Warriors charged the archers near the wood tge archers fled resulting in a failed charge. The glottkin challenged again but my buffed up BsB managed to hold only taking a wound. Crushers fluffed against the stank and everything stayed where it was. Glottkin remained on two wounds. In my turn the arch lector in the altar charged the crushers. The spearmen moved to threaten the flank of the stranded warriors. Threw all three steam points into grinding the glottkin who finally collapsed under the weight of a considerably smaller machine. Big magic phase burning gaze on the blight knights and followed with banishment brought them down to two knights. The artillery continued to scythe down warriors. The combat against the blood crushers saw a wound on the lector but he did a two wounds back and the impact hits got a wound through. The crushers held.



Final turn saw the blight knights charge the Halberdiers and the warriors declare a charge on the helblaster only to fall short. The combat against the crushers was a lock and the blight knights laid into the Halberdiers but couldn't break steadfast. In my final turn the artillery finished of the warriors leaving the Bsb on a wound. The Halberdiers quite heavily boosted brought down the blight knight banner bearer causing the last one to break and run. The steam tank ground one of the blood crushers in the movement phase and the combat continued with neither side moving. Interesting game in the end - mostly due to shooting and magic dominance.
More to follow...

[Gunman006]

Awesome battlereport, love the pics and that it looks so grim and dark 

[Cal1989]

Cheers man, that game was back in December so there maybe some inconsistencies haha, I'd love the photographer at the club to take some nice clear shots for a though it might make remembering a little easier!