Story:
It was the last imperial crusade. Having left most of their men and some trusted officers behind to guard the conquered city of Jher'Us à L'hem the Archlector and his bodyguard of three Warrior Priests was heading back for the harbour where a fast ship would sail them back to the Empire where they would report their victories too Karl Franz and the Grand Theogonist. Accompanying him were the Armies Battle Standard Bearer, a Captain of the Reiksguard and Lou'Minus, a wizard lord. Two small contigents of Reiksguard rode along as protection. Suddenly a large desert storm arose and as suddenly as it had appeared it lay down again. Surprisingly all the knights of the Reiksguard had been blown away by some strange force and instead a host of Khemrian Warriors had them encircled... Seeing only the six officers around him the Archlector knew they were lost... but not without a fight!
The Armies:
Chosen: As I was to play the seven heroes against an undead team I chose to field the last released Lord choice of the Empire: The Archlector of Sigmar. With 3 attacks with hatred and the possibility of giving him a great weapon and 100 points of magic items I did just that: a great weapon, Armour of Meteoric Iron and an item I always had wanted to use when facing undead but due to lack of points always switched for more models, the Laurels of Victory.
My second Lord choice was a Wizard Lord carrying amongst others the Rod of Power. As I was going to play lots of Warrior Priests I maybe could use it to store dispel dice for my own magic phase. He was going to use the lore of life.
I had opted for a captain chosing the Sword of Fate. Having someone who could wound on a 2+ causing D3 wounds a hit with no armour save on a certain monster or character would give me an edge of easily bringing down victory points.
Two warrior priests on foot and one mounted where choices to be expected against Khemri. Casting Armour of Righteousness would drain his dispel pool so my Wizard Lord could do his tricks or vice versa... A battle standard bearer finished the picture: I would have to make break tests so I prefered an option to reroll them.
Stefano: I took the chance to “undust” my Tomb Kings army for several reasons. First of all, they are all immune to psychology (so I didn’t need to take psychology nor break tests, plus the liche priest incantations give lots of opportunities to resurrect the fallen and to move a little faster). I was tempted to take the casket of souls, but although very effective, this would not increase the fun-level of the battle. Instead I took two tunnelling units as a surprise-act.
Deployment:
Stefano: I had to deploy first, so I positioned my foot troops in the centre with the liche priests in the back to keep them safe from (magical) missiles. With the chariots and the ushabti on the left flank and the bone giant on the right, I tried to open the opportunity to attack the knights with as many units at the same time as possible. After Chosen’s deployment, I placed the tunnel markers (represented by scatter dice) close to his units.
Chosen: Not much deployment for me. I only wanted to place my Wizard Lord in the bushes at an early stage so he had some cover. I was planning on using my two unmounted Warrior Priests as a team, my standard bearer and mounted warrior priest as another team and my captain with the Sword of Fate as the Giant Killer. My Archlector would assist where necessary but I believed he could stop every unit on his own...
The Battle:
Chosen: I moved my Wizard Lord into the bushes as I had planned and advanced with the rest of my men. My 'Sigmarites' prayed for Ward Saves which Stefano let mostly pass. My Wizard Lord had both the options of Wood and Stone Master and was going to use them. A hill being stone I could target the Bone Giant but I had another plan for him (Sword of Fate). Both the Hierophant and the Liche Priest were possible targets but in an act of generosity I chose to cast it on the Skeleton unit. I rather had a fun game then a game finished by round 4. An Irresistable cast slew several of the warriors. I als was able to cast master of Wood on the Ushabti causing 4 wounds on them. Not bad, not bad at all...
Stefano:
Due to an overwhelming act of generous friendship, Chosen deliberately chose not
to cast his “master of stone” upon my hierophant, leaving me in the running
instead of taking crumbling army tests for the rest of the game ! So whatever
the result, he could have won from turn 1. Thanks Chosen, I owe you !
This said, let’s continue the game. Seeing his priests and mounted knights move
straight forward, I positioned my troops to be able to counter if he chose to
charge in the next round. I also had to do something about that painful mage,
since all of my troops were in range of rocks or trees, so I moved the chariots
straight forward. Further, I didn’t succeed in resurrecting the fallen
skeletons, restoring wounds on the ushabti, nor moving the chariots further
towards the wizard. Finally, the few arrows shot by the chariot crew went by
unnoticed. Now let’s grab my dispel dice and hang in, for I smelled more magic
whacking coming my way …
Chosen: Charge! My mounted team of the battle standard bearer and the warrior priest stormed into the Ushabti. The other 3 dudes on foot went more towards the center of the board so they could finish the chariots if they failed their charge on my captain wielding the Sword of Fate. My Wizard Lord tried to cast several spells but wasn't too succesfull this tile. The Ushabti were slain outright and both 'knights' chose to overrun. This way they were not together any more as each had their own overrunning distance. I'd better teamed them together in my first round...
Stefano:
Hmm,
where did those Ushabti suddenly went to ? And what are those knights doing in
my hinterland ? Help ! But let’s not panic too soon, for the Tomb guard unit
brought along the
icon of Rakaph,
allowing them to make a free reform even before charges are declared. So turning
them 180°, they were facing the knight’s backs. On top of that, both the
scorpion and the swarm arose from under ground, effectively encircling the
knights in the centre.
After declaring charges, the Tomb guards decapitated the mounted warrior priest
with a killing blow, allowing them to overrun into the back of the battle
standard bearer. In the centre the scorpion made an end to the warrior priest’s
life, finding itself slammed into the archlector after overrunning. And finally
on the left, the mounted captain cowardly chose to flee before the trembling
assault of the charioteers. Alas for him, he wasn’t fast enough in turning his
horse and ended up wrapped around one of the wheels. Being focussed on the
bloody end of another knight, the chariot of the Tomb prince smashed full force
into the rocky feature just behind the knight. Only staying in one piece by a
few wooden pins, the prince kept his bolide and didn’t have to continue the
fight on foot.
Bottomline : three knights down, four to go !
Chosen: Damn, if I could only had run past behind that stone with my captain then I would have saved him and had the chariots in charge range of my warrior priest and Archlector if he wasn't overrun into by the Scorpion. Now I charged my Warrior Priest into the chariot of the tomb prince challenging him... I hoped von Horstmann Speculum would do the trick... My Wizard Lord, sensing the treath of the swarms, casted his spells on them, inflicting multiple wound on them. Alas they were still in the competition. The Warrior Priest didn't suffer any wounds but only did one in return on the Prince. He sadly failed his break test and was overrun. The Tomb Scorpion gave it his best shot against the Archlector but the armoured guy took the beating with a smile because his armour wasn't even scratched by the monster. In return he slew the Scorpion wielding his great Axe. In combination with the Laurels of Victory this was enough to destroy the undead beast. Any more volunteers to be slain?
Stefano:
Things
were going pretty my way by now, only having to slay the archlector in the
centre and the wizard in the woods, with only the loss of the ushabti, a Tomb
Scorpion and half a unit of skeletons. Seeing my chances to finish things, the
archlector received an incoming bone giant, while the wizard saw the remaining
swarm animals closing in. The rest of the army couldn’t do much apart from
repositioning or advancing to give the final blow in the next turn. At least,
these were my expectations.
The giant construct delivered quite some wounding blows, partly because of the
unstoppable assault, only to see none of them pierce the armour of the
archlector. In return, the archlector peppered the bone giant with well-placed
great weapon blows, seeing his larger adversary disappear completely due to
wounds and combat result. Was this the start of the empire general’s wrath
Chosen was constantly threatening with ?
Chosen: OK, those swarms were really closing in on me now. I decided to charge my Archlector into the chariot. I chose not to bring the tomb prince in the combat but was going for the standard bearers chariot giving me an extra advantage if I could blast it away. My wizard lord concentrated again on casting all his spells on the swarms but did not succeed in destroying them completely. Damned. As I thought the chariots were no match for my Archlector and due to combat result ( 3 wounds times two versus only outnumbering) the remaining chariot and prince crumbled away. The curse didn't give me any trouble either. Next please?
Stefano:
I
must admit this archlector wasn’t going to be dismembered easily. So let’s
start with the easy part. The heavily reduced swarm finally got the chance of
charging the wizard, so they did. All other units hurried (to be more precise,
crawled) towards the archlector. In the magic phase, I was able to get away
with an incantation of resurrection, restoring the skeleton unit to near full
force. Unfortunately for the enemy wizard, he forgot to bring along his flask
of anti-poison, and so was mercilessly stung to death by the small
scorpion-lings.
Still two turns to go, with only the toughest enemy still standing and nearly
unobstructed magic phases yet to come in my next turns. Not bad !
Chosen: Dumb ass! I should have left the bushes with my Wizard Lord. In doing so ther swarms couldn't have charged me (seeing only two inch) and then I had another round of magic. Having nothing other at hand I charged the Archlector into the remaining swarm. Magic and shooting werent an issue so I directly decided to deliver some blows to the swarms. Needless to say they weren't a match at all for my combat-monster! Ashes too ashes, dust too dust...
Stefano : If I ever play my own empire troops again, I must remind myself to include an archlector! Having a body count of no less then a bone giant, a tomb scorpion, a complete unit of charioteers including a tomb prince, and the last reminders of the swarm, he single-handedly collected the total of more then a quarter of my forces. I had to keep this killing machine away from my soft units and characters, so I charged in the Tomb King and accompanying Tomb Guard only to see him flee…
Chosen: I had fled the first charge of the Tomb Guards in a small tactical thought. If he had charged me directly he could have magically moved the warriors in my flank giving him an extra bonus. Luckily I rallied the Archlector and now I was ready to make my last stand. Bring it on!
Stefano: Not much left to do but charge the lone character, hey ! So with some help from my liche priests, the beardy fellow got caught by my elite troopers. A multitude of blows were delivered from my King and the nearby Guard, only to find them all deflected by the emperial armour, again. Not only that, but I even had to swallow the fact one of the guards was smashed in return ! Fortunately, I brought along a banner and enough models to easily win the combat result, but not enough to see the manling turn tail and run. But hey, having smeared 6 out of 7 knights all over the battle field isn’t that bad …
End:
Despite
the initial heavy magic and the quite impressive body count of the archlector,
the empire army couldn’t prevent the undead from scoring a minor victory.
Again, I must state that Chosen probably would have won with his fingers in the
nose if he had cast “master of stone” on my hierophant in turn 1.
Learning Points:
Empire: (Chosen of Sigmar)
-
Hatred in combination with a great weapon and Laurels of Victory rule against undead.
-
Trees block line of sight so you can't be charged!
-
7 knights is a nice scenario too play when you hate your opponents army...
Tomb Kings: (Stefano)
-
Never underestimate an archlector!
-
My bone constructs weren’t that effective in combat.
-
The icon of Rakaph is most effective when countering enemies in the hinterland!
