A Nation Sundered part 3: The End of the Beginning, and the Beginning of the Middle...

      Lord Edwin Dufflecoat, commander of the Imperial Expeditionary Force, considered the contents of the compound- a scattering of barrels and crates, mostly already destroyed by looters, lay all around.  Here at last was the armoury of whoever had destroyed so many peaceful villages and claimed so many innocent lives. Hopefully here he would  find something that would lead him to those responsible so that they may face Imperial justice at last!
        He passed through the shattered gateway with pistol in hand. He couldn't help but feel uneasy in this temple to chemical death, this strange sensation that he on the brink of a terrible discovery that would shatter his worldview.  Maybe it was the tatty Imperial Banner that still fluttered over the gateway, maybe it was the Imperial Steam Tank parked under its tarpaulin in the corner of the compound...maybe it was just last nights curry come back to haunt him.
       Kneeling, he picked up a couple of shards of timber that had been victim of the looters axe, and held their matching edges together- the image of the Imperial Eagle was clear.  A few yards away a piece of paper fluttered in the breeze, revealing the legend "Product of Altdorf". He considered these signs for a moment, wondering what they might portend. A shout from his troops arrayed outside the compound broke his reverie , and he turned to see black armoured troops wearing black eyeliner under black banners advancing up the road towards the compound.  It must be true then, he thought, that the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime...

Clues have been followed, rumours investigated. The evidence has led two armies to a final confrontation that will mark the end of Round 1, and determine who wins the Special Territory- The Abandoned Chemical Weapons Factory.  Many armies have been bloodied in this Quest thus far, and all who were deserving received gifts from Father Christmas himself, as he made his deliveries to the Warhammer World, and in recognition of your efforts- Reinforcements have Arrived!

The Results, and Territories held at the end of Round 1 are as Follows:

Colin (orcs and goblins):-  nil points.
2 Trade Routes and a Village         
                                                
James (Bretonnia):   -  8 points
Lost Valley (2 Villages) , Village , Forest (3) 
Treasure Horde, Trade Route                                                           

Alan (Dwarves):   - 7 points
Forest(3) , Village, Town , Ruins,                                                       

Rick (undead):  - 3 points
Town, Lost Valley (Treasure Horde/Trade Route), Trade Route         

Phil (Orcs and goblins):  -7 points
Village ,Bridge(70),  Wizards Tower, Silver Mine                               

Dave (Dark Elves):   - 14 points
Lost Valley(village/town), Forest (3), Pass (120),                               
Pass (130), Sacred Grove, Trade Route.

Chris (Chaos): -4 points
Village, Sacred Grove, Pass(120)                                                         

Dafydd (undead)  -11 points
Road(40), pass(70), Village, Ruins, Town, Trade Route                   

Geoff (wood Elves)  -10 points
Town, Silver mine, Silver Mine, Pass (80), Temple, Bridge(80)       

Rob (Dark Elves)  -13 points
Lost Valley (road (100)/Village), Trade Route, Village,                     
Trade route, Forest (2), Silvermine, Forest(2) .

Aidan (Empire)   -18 points
3 Villages, Trade Route, Forest (2), Wizards Tower,                       
Silver Mine, Town, Lost Valley (Temple/Trade route)

Thus, Myself and David will fight for control of the Special Territory!
No Territories are staked for this game. The winner takes all.

This will be Pitched Battle, as per the battle book, except that in the exact centre of the battlefield a small compound containing crates, barrels etc .  Looters have broken open a lot of barrels and whilst most of the really harmful stuff has dissipated its still not pleasant to be in the vicinity for very long!  Any unit with in 6" of the compound at the end of its turn takes d6 S1 hits.

Victory points are awarded as normal , with 5 Extra Victory points going to whoever has figures within the Compound at the end of the game.

The Abandoned Alchemical Weapons Factory, Special Territory.
Whoever wins this Territory may search for any Alchemical Weapons that may have been overlooked by the Looters. There only a few items left, and any weapons used can't be replenished for the next battle, a Character in your army can carry any one item. Luckily most of the items are still labelled with how to use them! Roll 3 times on the Following Table:  Every time you win another game, you may roll on this table once more! Keep track of which items have been rolled- once you've had at least one of all 6 (whether you've used them or not) the territory is exhausted and must be abandoned.

1-Al-kahest  A set of  small vials of that may be thrown just like a throwing knife, with range 6". They hit with S3, and no Armour Save is allowed. 6 uses only.
2-Peter Pomegranate This Large glass globe can be thrown with a range of 6"- pick a point within LOS up to 6" away and roll the scatter dice +d6" to see where it lands! The globe releases a rather unpleasant gas! place the blast template on the landing point - any model touched by the template must take a T test with no save!  One use only
3-Embiggerence! This potion may be poured on any model in base contact including the model carrying it. It may be avoided if desired by a successful  I test (no armour save), otherwise the target model immediately doubles in size! (Any mount is instantly crushed..or runs away!) The models M, S, T, and W are all doubled (max10) , but the I is halved and the model is now a large target, causing fear, and Stupid! Unfortunately any magic items or weapons it was carrying are now useless to it.  One use only. May be used at the start of the turn.
4-Emlittlence! This potion may also be poured on any model in base contact including the model carrying it. It may be avoided if desired by a successful  I test (no armour save). The model (and any mount!) instantly shrinks to the size of a mouse!  Obviously the victim can't do much for the rest of the game except hide in the long grass and wait for it to wear off...  One use only. The victim isn't dead though, so no victory points are scored! May be used at the start of the turn.
5-Panacea Universalis This concoction may be used on any figure in base contact, or the bearer- it immediately restores 1 wound . 3 Uses only.  May be used at the start of the turn.
6- An unmarked bottle. Impossible to know what effect it has until you use it on a target model. Roll a D3- on a 1 its an Embiggerence! , 2: its a Emlittlence! , 3: its a Panacea Universalis.



And so for everyone else, its on to Round 2! The Lost City of Minimostock!
A few weeks ago the city was not lost; it was a thriving Port on the Ayrisian Coast, with its harbour and merchants doing brisk trade. It had been firmly under the control of the King and had been instrumental in bringing in foreign support to his cause, and providing the wealth for continuing the war. Its loss has been felt keenly; where once was gleaming spires and tall towers was now naught but sandy beach...
      However there are now rumours of a wrecked ship found far inland, on the eastern edge of Ayris where the the arable land meets the edge of the desert. The crew all but dead, but a sole survivor claiming they had been approaching the west coast of Ayris at night , and could see the lights of the city on the horizon, and so the rumour goes, could still see those lights after the ship shattered on impact with the top of a hill...

The various players must now find the Lost City of Minimostock, uncover the foul sorceries that caused it to vanish, reverse them and claim the city's riches for themselves!

All event rules carry on as normal, the points listed above are reset to 0 for everyone.
 Army points limit has now increased to 1500 points (plus any additional points for territories)

A Nation Sundered, part 2.

      The Lord Edwin Dufflecoat, commander of the Imperial Expeditionary Force, leaned on his pommel and gazed disdainfully around the deserted village. A handful of fresh corpses scattered around the sole street betrayed the fact that  until recently it had been a thriving community, but like a dozen more villages they had investigated, nobody lived here now. Even the vegetation was sickly and blackened. Half a dozen troopers were all that moved here, ensuring that such evidence as might still be found was undisturbed.

    Grand Meister Grym of the Amethyst order of  the Unpunctuated Otter dismounted his horse and strode to the centre of the village, his cloak swirling about him. He held his ceremonial Scythe aloft and brought the butt of it down on the dry earth in a gesture Lord Edwin considered to be far too dramatic. Dust and debris rose in a cloud and settled on the Wizard's outstretched hand. He peered closer, his lips moving soundlessly, his countenance that of unbreakable concentration. The air around him glowed and lensed, changing from hue to hue rapidly. Lord Edwin leaned forward, craning to see what the Grand Meister might discern, would he at last find evidence for the use of Alchemical weapons as had been rumoured? The Wizard was almost frozen, the tiny particles the focus of all his power and attention. After a moment that seemed to last an eternity the wizard threw the dust to the ground in frustration, and without a word stalked off to examine some nearby foliage. 

     Lord Edwin  sighed, and sank back in his saddle, disappointed at what appeared to be another wild goose chase. But something had to have happened here. A dozen villages don't become deserted without a reason. What power had been unleashed here, what devilry was at work?  His reverie was broken by a flurry of pistol shots from the edge of the village, and the pounding of hooves as the Troopers galloped towards him.

        "Sir! Look out, Sir!" cried the Lieutenant commanding the troop of Pistoliers, riding hard and aiming a pistol behind him. As the pistol fired, Lord Edwins gaze followed the bullets path, his heart skipping a beat as he saw the cause for the Pistoliers panic.

         At the end of the street the dead villagers were beginning to move...

Firstly, some new rules for the campaign!

Each time a player plays a game they get points- 1 for a loss, 2 for a draw, 3 for a win.

The top two ranking players on the 1st of December will play a match with no staked territories, and a special prize territory up for grabs; The Abandoned Alchemical Weapon Factory!

Players are to be reminded to keep track of their Veteran Bonus's and not to forget to roll on the Generals Victory Bonus Chart on page 152 of the Battlebook! 

There is also an events chart:

Whenever a roll on the Territory chart is required for a game between two or more players a roll of a double will trigger an Event! After the game the two players roll off and the loser rolls 2d6 on the Events chart:  Should any of the events result in a player having less than three territories then he must abandon them and roll three new ones as through he'd started the campaign afresh. 

2)  PLAGUE! A terrible plague has broken out among your territories. Victims are stricken with blue and yellow boils all across their body, develop an unquenchable thirst for soy sauce and finally breakout in a rendition of Chumbawumbas 'Tubthumping' sung at a volume that wrecks lungs and vocal chords, and can last for days until the victim finally succumbs. The Plague is invariably fatal, and extremely annoying.  Test with a d6 roll for all Towns and Villages under your control; a Village is destroyed on a 4+, a  Town reduced to a Village on a 6+. Pick one other territory you control which is also destroyed.

3)  PIRATES!  Since the war began Pirates have become more common in the Black Gulf, preying on shipping mostly but occasionally daring to land on Ayris's undefended coast...  Roll a d6 for each wizards tower you own, it is destroyed on a 4+. If you have no Wizards Tower roll for each Sacred Grove, Shrine or Temple- on a 6+ it is reduced to a Wizards Tower.

4)  BANDITS!  The kingdom of Ayris is almost lawless now, with armed bands with nothing to lose roaming and looting at will, and its impossible to maintain patrols on all your lines of supply...

Roll 1d6 for each Trade Route, Road, Bridge and Pass you own. You must abandon it on a 4+.

5) FIRE!  Somebody left the gas on, and now the whole towns aflame!  Quick peeps, bury your Cheese...

One random Town or Village is burnt down: retain the Teritory but gain no benefit from it and you can't stake it. After each subsequent game roll a D6 (add +1 if you win) - on a 6+ the settlement is rebuilt!

6) Mine Exhausted! If you dig up to much gold, eventually you'll run out of gold to dig up...

 Randomly select a Silver or Gold mine you own. Abandon it.

7) SCANDAL!  Your political opponents at home are making life difficult for you with spurious rumours that aren't in any way true! Fake news! Fake News! And that picture of you with a Badger is clearly photoshopped...unfortunately until you can gain some good publicity your funding has been cut and confidence in your abilities is at an all time low. Your General is at -1 LD, and can't earn or use Veteran or Victory bonus's. This lasts until you win a game.

8)  STORMS!  The weatherman didn't see this one coming, Storms and heavy rain turn your roads into swamps and wash away your bridges...lose the benefit of any Passes, Bridges or Roads in your next game, and you can't stake them either.

9) The Peasants are Revolting! One of your Towns (if no Towns then a Village) has risen against you, fed up with your emptying their graveyards/filling their graveyards/massive taxation/bizarre  demands for physical gratification (delete as appropriate) . They have had enough and now spend their days chanting slogans , building barricades and waving flags. The town now gives you no benefits, and can't be staked (nobody else wants that problem!) . If you lose a game the Rebellion spreads to another Town or Village you control. If you win a game you've managed to hang the rebel scum in one settlement. Once you've stamped out all rebellions it stops spreading.

10) Earthquake!  The native Earth Gods of Ayris are angry at the temples you've erected to false gods on their turf, and they intend to destroy the intruders! One Random Temple/Wizards Tower/Shrine/Sacred grove you own is destroyed. 

11) VOLCANO!  Ayris is littered with sleeping volcanoes...and one has just woken up. One Random Territory you own is destroyed, unless in your next game you appease the Volcano with a sacrifice! One character model (not a unit champion as they are not important enough, and not your General as you're not stupid enough to sacrifice yourself) that you can take as part of your army must have its points paid for as part of the army but then NOT be used in the game! Deploy as normal and then declare which of your deployed characters you are sacrificing! Roll 2d6 and multiply by 10. If the Score is lower than the Points cost of the Sacrificed Character the Volcano is appeased and the Territory saved!  

12)  CHAOS REIGNS! The Chaos Gods don't have quite as much power this far south, but the way Ayris is tearing itself to pieces amuses them greatly, and they're keen to join in the fun and games:  Randomly select one random Territory you own- It now does the opposite of what it is supposed to do! So for example, if you have a Trade route allowing you a magic item it no longer grants the magic item, AND it counters the effects of another territories effects as well, so if you had a second Trade Route the first Reversed Territory would cancel this out, and neither would gain you a Magic Item. Or if you had a Shrine the Reversed Trade Route would mean you no longer received the 50pt magic item from the Shrine but could still have the level 3 wizard. This Effect is permanent, and you can continue to stake the territory as well...whether you tell your opponents about it before or after they take it is up to you! 

The News

Battle has come to Ayris and  a flurry of battles have heralded the arrival of many combatants each faction seeking to establish a base of operations from which to conduct its campaign.  The Undead tasted first blood with a victory over the forces of Chaos, but found it tougher going against the less rash and more calculating Empire. The Dark Elves saw victory across the board with the Orcs and Chaos Warriors tasting their whips and chains.  

In other news A Giant Sea Creature has been sighted in the Black Gulf. It is hoped that this is targeting the Pirates that infest the Gulf rather than the Ships that are intended to resupply the campaigning armies. Also the City of Minimostok has vanished. Reward offered for its safe return.

Lord Edwin Dufflecoats Imperial Expeditionary Force prepares to meet the Undead! 

Dark Elves and Chaos Warriors deploy for battle!

A number of battlefields are reported as having Giant Hands pointing at them...

...but there is no truth in this at all. 

The forces of Chaos wastes its strength against the Nigh Unbreakable Elves

The Orcs discover why Air Superiority in this war will be vital... 

whilst the Undead learn why M3 is such a disadvantage

Stay tuned for more news from the front!

A Nation Sundered, a 5th Ed. WHFB campaign

So, having piqued the groups interest in 5th ed WHFB I was reading through my various books and wandering what to do next when I happened upon the Campaign rules in the battlebook. I like these rules; they are simple but work well. A quick survey suggested there was some interest in a little campaign, and so I decided to run one!

The rules to be used would be pretty much as written.  Starting armies limited to 1000 points with increments for territories as normal. And thats it. The rest of the work has already been done, and is already in the 5th ed battle book! But I shall list the limitations for completeness:

Army size limit; 1000 points
Only one wizard, max level 1.
A General is compulsory but other characters are not allowed until the requisite territory is taken.
One magic item, up to 50 points in value.
1 warmachine
1 large monster
No allies.

Players are to tell the umpire (me) of the results of their battles, including who ended up with what territory and what objectives were or were not achieved. Also to keep track of their own veteran or elite status's of their units.

I decided some background was in order.

Somewhere between the Worlds Edge Mountains and the Black Gulf lies the small, unregarded kingdom of Ayris, a kingdom so overlooked that it was often missing from maps of the Old World altogether! This state of affairs might have continued had not a civil war broken out between the corrupt King Wossisname and his dissatisfied subjects. Whilst this was an almost entirely internal struggle, its impact was felt across the world. The kingdoms position on the edge of the gulf meant that trade in the area between Tilea, the Border princes, Araby, various of the more southerly dwarven strongholds and the Crusader Kingdoms was disrupted. This disruption threatened many of the more precarious states, and as many of these states were closely tied to the Great Powers of the world it wasn't long before the eyes of the world were turned on Ayris. 

The struggle between those loyal to the king, and the rebel scum had been violent and each had fought the other to a standstill. Exhausted, they both turned to foreign powers for aid. And so armies came from far and wide, some openly supporting one cause or another, others keeping their cards closer to their chest and pursuing their own private interests. Some were simply there to secure certain resources, Ayris being the source of a particularly potent 'Potion of Strength', and a producer of vast numbers of 'Dispel Scrolls' . And a few came sensing that in the chaos would be opportunity; for riches and glory, or to carve out their own kingdom. 

As the kingdom of Ayris tore itself apart, the vultures began to circle...

As the foreign powers representatives arrive they secure for themselves , by political wrangling or by force, a base of operations:

Myself, commanding an Empire army occupied a Village, a Forest(2) and a lost valley containing a Temple and a Trade Route.

Geoff, commanding the Wood Elves, controls two Towns and a bridge(80).

Rob, with dark elves, terrorizing a lost valley including a Road(50) and Village, a Trade Route and a wizards tower.

Chris, is Chaotic, and corrupts a Village, a Forest(1), and a Sacred Grove.

David, also Dark Elvish , is being unpleasant to a Village, a Trade Route, and a Pass(120).

Dafydd, is Undead, and now haunts a pair of villages, and a road (30).

Rick is also Undead and infests a Town, a Trade Route and a Mountain(1)

I will, shortly, be furnishing some, all or none of the players some sort of secret objective that they must try and achieve to further their own nefarious aims. Success or failure may result in great rewards, or penalties!

This could be interesting....

Breakthrough!

The other day more troops for my Empire army rolled of the production line; the first two regiments of Horse - Pistoliers and knights of the White Wolf , and some reinforcements for the infantry and artillery. The guns were brand new, the rest had been waiting for attention for quite a while, and included some of the first figures I bought for my Empire Army...some twenty -odd years ago!  There are still a few more units to paint- Knights of the Blazing Sun, Knights Panther, a Steam Tank, and a few more heroes, but it felt like a milestone of sorts had been reached, which could mean only three things: First, a celebratory cuppa. Secondly, some pics should be taken, and thirdly, the Empire must go to war!  A challenge was laid down, and Chris foolishly accepted !

Pistoliers and knights of the White Wolf- the Pistoliers Standard has to
set some kind of record for longest time taken over the simplest conversion:
the  pistol was cut to make way for the staff 20 years ago. The staff was added
last week!

The entire force arrayed

 So, to war!  We agreed to play a 2500 point game, with no special characters. Scenario selected on the night was Breakthrough, with me attacking, and we rolled 5 turns.

 I wanted to fit in as many of my painted units as possible, so I chose all of them , and then worked out what heroes I could have with my remaining points. I ended up with the following:

Captain-General von Drakmoor w/ Runefang, Armour of Fortune, pistol, barded warhorse.
Sergeant-at-arms Owen Grimace ;  Battle standard w/ Warbanner, heavy armour, pistol, barded warhorse
Hildegard, Archsorceress of the Menificent Order of the Umpth Wuncicle: wizard, level 3, warhorse.
Knights of the White Wolf ,5 inc Standard bearer w/ Standard of Shielding, Champion w/ Jade Amulet.
The Nordreik Horse; 9 Pistoliers, inc standard.
The Werberg Regt. of Foot: 25 halberdiers, inc standard, musician and champion
The Innleigh Guard: 15 halberdiers, inc standard, musician and champion
Freikorps,  16 inc musician (count as halberdiers)
The Soerheim Company of Archers, 21 inc standard.
The Froddasheim Greatswords, 12 inc standard, musician and champion.
Borther Stumptickles Company; 18 dwarf crossbows, inc standard and musician.
2 greatcannons
1 mortar
1 hellblaster

The Chaos Horde deploys whilst its commander contemplates his
'blurred hands' mutation.

 The Chaos Horde (all 37 of them !) consisted of
A lord of Slannesh on chariot  (the big palanquin thing)
a daemon prince
two units of 10 warriors
5 knights
10 horsemen

The chaos force was deployed across the road to Hargendorf, covering their brethren in the siege lines encircling that town. Von Drakmoor has been tasked with breaking through , and raising the siege!

The first turn was awfully dull. Von Drakmoor ordered a general advance, but none of the artillery found it's mark. The Chaos force retreated slightly. Magic played little part, but the Nordreik Horse caught some sort of pox that made it hard to walk !

Encouraged by the lack of inappropriate behaviour from the frottage squad the Imperial advance continued, the artillery finding the range and sending the marauder horse flying from the field. Archsorceress Hildegard spurred her horse forward and hurled a fireball at the chaos knights. To a cry of "I'm not wasting a dispel on a power 1 spell!" all but one of the regiment was immolated!

In retaliation a large pink daemon prince dropped from the sky in front of her, keen to avenge the fallen and find out what a Wuncicle was when it was at home; distracting the giant pervert with a well timed "look; behind you !" the Archsorceress rode safely away, and the Imperial line wavered, but held firm under their commanders eye !

That'll be Terror tests all round then?

 The great cannons roared, their shot tearing the Princely One asunder, but it was able to Escape! and staggered back on to the battlefield to general dismay!  The Chaos Lord rode in to the fray, scattering the Soerheim Archers, shrugging off  their attempts to slow it down!

chap with wings, five rounds rapid!

 The hedonistic headcase rode on in to the Innleigh Guard, but received a flank charge from the mighty Knights of the White Wolf. A spirited duel began between the knights champion, and the chaos lord. The rest of the Imperial troops turned his pimped up ride into firewood. Enraged by this vandalism he refused to flee!

CHARGE!

The Pistoliers came under attack from the injured Daemon Prince ,but despite its only having one wound their pistols were unable to find their mark . With chaos halberdiers loitering with intent on the far side of the village the advance of the  Freikorps and Greatswords was suitably cautious.

Freikorps on a pub crawl  

  The Werberg Regt. charged the last chaos knight, hoping to break it and thus hasten their egress. Alas, even a single chaos knight was a match for an entire regiment of men, and they were soon outflanked, and destroyed.  Meanwhile, the Chaos Lord had felled the Knights champion , and turned his unwanted attention on Von Drakmoor, who whacked him mightily with his Runefang! The gods of chaos attempted to resurrect the chaos knights, but there some sort of administrative error and three the Nordreik Horse staggered back to their feet and returned to the fight, albeit briefly!

 Seeing the horrific fate of the Werbergers, Hildebrand spurred forward once more , incinerating the last chaos knight. Sporadic shooting accounted for a few more chaos warriors, the last Pistolier held his ground, and von Drakmoor tried to finish off his opponent but only managed to tickle him with his mighty weapon!   But the followers of Slaanesh had had enough; realizing a break through was inevitable, they fell back in good order to buy what time they could for the besiegers of Hargendorf.

I love the smell of burning chaos knights in the morning ...
smells like...my wifes cooking.

And that was it. A 10-6 victory for The Empire ! Though Chris loudly proclaimed a moral victory (on the grounds that I'm immoral ) ...until he realised he hadn't paid for a retinue for the Daemon Prince and his army was technically illegal ...whoops.

So, after all that...time for a campaign I think.

The Gathering Darkness

A recurring and much loved topic of discussion amongst the gang is that of  "Edition wars", the endless and near pointless back and forth over which version of Warhammer Fantasy Battle was the best ever.  It was during one such conversation that Rick declared he really liked "the one that had the lizards in it" and that we should play a big game of that edition.  Nevermind that none of us had played 5th edition for decades, and that it was never the quickest system ever to fight a battle to some kind of conclusion, we agreed a date and to bring every model we had within certain parameters. We ended up deciding on a Chaos V Undead bash, with a few allies.

Chris and I would ally our Chaos armies together. Mine was a bit on the small side so I decided to invite my Orcs of the Skullsmasha Legion to the party.  Rick and his sprog Ben would command the Undead. My own undead army was added , and allies came in the form of Skaven!

We decided to play everything more or less Wysiwyg, with only a few "counts as" for some of the more obscure stuff that hadn't existed in 5th edition. Some stuff was simply ported in "as is" from 4th and 6th editions, and this didn't appear to cause any problems!

Little attempt was made to make sure the sides were even, and both forces were simply plonked down. At a guess I'd estimate the forces to be around 10000 points but they were very different forces. Ricks undead were somewhat character heavy, almost as many Vampires in his army as we had any sort of characters!  I counted at least 4 special characters amongst the ranks, including both Von Carstein and Nagash, By contrast we had almost no heroes, and only a few big hitting monsters, but the quality of our infantry was somewhat higher overall.

We let the special characters keep their allocated magic items, and decided to randomly distribute the magic item cards from the 5th edition boxed set. I forget most of who got what, but my Orc Warlord on a Wyvern got the Blade of Ensorcelled Iron for a +1 to hit, the Boarboys got a Warbanner and the Hero leading my Marauders got the Blade of Leaping Bronze for +2 attacks.

Took a few pics, so I'll let them do the talking...

My Orc and Chaos combined armies.

Ricks Undead and Skaven

The Forces of Chaoticness...

The Undead forming up properly .

The battle lines arrayed!

The four biscuit-loving Champions of Order and Chaos put their game faces on...

And the ref blows the whistle, and their off! With just 6 hours of game time to go!

The massed undead lancers look for an opening on the flank whilst a vampire on
Zombie Dragon gets the drop on my Chaos Dragon!  The chaos dragon was badly
wounded, but managed to eat the Vampire, causing the Zombie Dragon to take to the skies.
Our Victory was short lived when the Vampire "escaped!" and returned to hunt down
and finish off the Chaos Dragon later in the game!

The Lancers on the Edge of Time get the better of the Skeleton Horsemen,
 the Giant heads to the Pub

The Slannesh Priest on his panaquin (counting as a chariot today)
gets bogged down by rats, who dismantle his chariot...

The Orc Warlord takes the fight to the plague monks!

The Chaos centre as the zombies approach, the thugs using their bows to
good effect, and nearly killing one...

The battle lines vie for the charge!

My orcs get fed up of waiting for the Chaos knights to get our of the way
and maneuver around them.

The giants pubcrawl is disturbed some annoying little twerps. So he jumps
up and down on them for a bit to teach them a lesson...

The winds of magic just arent blowing strong enough for Nagash,
who is struggling to Raise Dead fast enough to replenish the thinning ranks

Two units of mounted wights caused panic in the chaos lines , with unit after unit
routing, but the undead were too slow to capitalise on this, and the counter attack
defeated both attacks. 

The undead horde is reduced to a mob of unkillable vampires who roll nothing but ones...

The Giant spots more victims!

Well that was a lot of fun, with a convincing victory for the Forces of Chaos!  So what went wrong for Nagash and his minions?  Well, Rick, as the commander in chief of the undead forces was happy to take all the blame and dump it on his son Ben for rolling nothing but ones for the entire game, and doing all the actual dice rolling to boot! We fully expected the Vampire to take a heavy toll on our infantry as we had little capable of taking them in a unit v unit melee, but every time one stepped up to fight they promptly dropped their swords, fell over their own feet and were generally useless. Even Vlad took 4 rounds of combat to deal with someone he should have been able to kill with his little toe!  Apart from killing my Dragon (at the second attempt!) most of them barely landed a blow! Ricks other primary excuse was the pitiful winds of magic rolls. Before the Game I had suggested we make it a 4d6 roll, but Rick was concerned that might allow magic to dominate(!) too much, and eventually we compromised on 3d6+1 cards each turn. He did have a pretty low turn with a mere 5 cards rolled at a critical point of the game, but I thought we had plenty of magic to go around the rest of the time. I felt he was tending to try and power up single spells too much and would have been better with more less powerful spells to draw out the dispel cards. As it was my own Chaos Sorcerer pretty much had Nagash sewn up for the entire game, dispelling almost everything that came his way and planting a few good doses of Soul Drain on key units , which they were unable to recover from before a general melee ensued.

At the end of the game our mass of infantry was engaged with almost none of the skeletons, most of whom were already destroyed but were generally facing a scattering of vampires, wraiths and wights. We had been very luck with the Vampires poor showing thus far, and had only held our own by virtue of skeletons being really squishy! In a hypothetical next turn, with no more skeletons to hit, and with some decent rolls on the vampires and wraiths (being too tough or too ethereal for our infantry to hurt) the out come could have been rather different. 

Anyway that was great and I hope we can do it again soon!

Warmaster 2! Warmasteryier...

Last night I played my first game of Warmaster!  My order from Pendraken had arrived and had been painted and this (with some borrowed bears and a few magical toys ) brought my army up to near 1500 points.
My Force consisted of:
General with Orb of Majesty
Hero with sword of might
Hero with Bear
Wizard with dispel scroll
3 units of Lancers (1 with a magic banner)
3 units of Horse Archers
2 units of Archers
2 units of Axemen
1 Warwagon
1 unit of Borrowed Bears

These faced Geoffs High Elves!
2 Units of Silver Helms
2 units of Reavers
2 units of Chariots
4 units of Spearmen
3 units of Archers
1 battery of bolt throwers
General, hero and wizard

The General and the Kislevite centre

The Elf centre.  

The Elven Right .

The Kislevite left,

The Lancers 

The Kislevite Light Cavalry Brigade mix it up with the Reavers and Silver Helms. They destroyed the Reavers, but only bagged one stand of silver helms before the brigade was lost. Still, their charge caused Chaos in the elven lines...

In response the rest of the Elven wing went and stood on a hill for a bit.

Last stand of the Horse Archers

The Lancers try out a lance formation. They'd lost three stands when they got
charged by the chariots, but they destroyed the chariots in turn. Pity they spent
most of the game just standing there.

My left flank- at this point with a briagde gone, and still outnumbered I
moved the lancers closer to my centre for mutual support

Meanwhile in the centre- the Kislevites have taken their time over laagering,
luckily the elvish brigades here were taking orders from an wizard, and spent
most of the time just faffing about.  The Bears are sent in to cause more chaos.

The Elvish archery eventually deals with the bears and they steady their lines only
for the Lancers to arrive, coming down the hillside (and presumably with Sabaton
providing the soundtrack...), and were driven back, despite the Kislevites only being
armed with rubber lances....

The game didn't quite end there - The silver helms managed to catch my two under strength lancer units unawares and destroyed them. This should have ended the game but I miscounted and didn't realise I'd reached half strength! Pressing on, my remaining lancers charged the two spearmen units that had survived their previous charge, and wiped them out , breaking the Elf army as well...whoops!


So whats the verdict? It was a great game, though I need more units: I was a bit out numbered, and even just 4 units less in such a small game meant I was somewhat stretched. Need to get my General to where the action is as well, the first half of the game was all about the cavalry engagement on my left, but the general was miles away, and the two heroes commanding Brigades there were out of their depth!  And wizards are no substitute for a proper commander.  Never got to see what the Infantry could do, once they'd laargered they were rather static! They shot up any elves that came near quite well, but we never got to test Geoff's assertion that they were unassailable once formed up. But the fact he was reluctant to engage them suggests more warwagons might be worth it. 

Most of the rules of the game I very much like, but  I was a little dissatisfied with the melee mechanic were you keep fighting round after round till one side is defeated. Theres something funny about it, but I can't quite decide what it is. More testing required.

Anyway, heres some random shots of the whole force.  Think it needs more Horse.  A lot more Horse...