Tomb Kings Battle Reports

[Toshiro]

Tutan'khe family tale
Undead Ambitions
Intrusion
Resurrection
Gathering of souls
Daemonic Rift
Relief Force
Temple Guardians
The Temple of Ptra
Ulthuan Landing
Seizing the Throne
Preparation for War
Retribution
The Oath
Savage Tribes
Thunderous Charge
From the Frozen North
Border Skirmish
Forest Guardians
Arabian Genies


UNDEAD AMBITIONS
Rhatep strode over the floor, the royal palace laid empty save for a few tomb guards standing silently at the doors. His father, king Tutan'khe, had summoned him this day and given him command of a small force that were to head north, in order to fend of an intrusion by an enemy that were new to these lands. Some of the ambitions that Rhatep had harboured in his life still remained within him now in death and he saw this as an opportunity to prove to his father that he was as worthy a warrior as his eldest brother Kha'tek. As he came out of the palace he made his way over to his chariot and took the reigns to the two skeletal steeds pulling it. He would see his enemies driven before him and he would reap in death what life hadn't been able to give him, more power...

INTRUSION (TOMB KINGS vs DARK ELVES 1100pts)

Tomb Kings

Heroes (357 pts)
Rhatep (Tomb Prince) [192pts]
-Chariot, spear of antarhak, enchanted shield, light armour.

Mesh'het (Liche Priest) [165pts]
-Collar of shapesh, hieretic Jar.

Core (375pts)

17x Skeleton Warriors [163pts]
-Light armour, shields, champion.

8x Skeleton Heavy Horsemen [167pts]
-Standard bearer, banner of undying legion.

1x Tomb Swarm [45pts]

Special (275pts)
3x Chariots [190pts]
-Standard bearer, icon of the sacred eye.

Tomb Scorpion [85pts]

Rare (90pts)
Screaming Skull Catapult [90pts]

Total: 1097pts

Dark Elves

Characters
Aenarion (Master) Heavy armour, sea cloak, cold one, caledors bane, talisman of protection, ahw, rxb [172pts]

Units
Repeater Crossbowmen (10) FC, shields [130pts]
Corsairs (20) FC, sea serpent standard [250pts]
Cold One Knights (5) FC, dread banner [215pts]
Black Guards (15) FC, standard of hag grief, kouran [326pts]

Total: 1093pts

[Toshiro]

Battle Information
Scenario: Pitched Battle
Victory Conditions: Standard
Scenario Conditions: Standard
First Turn: Decided by dice roll according to standard rules.

Pre-Battle Notes/Thoughts
A couple of notes on the army lists: My opponent forgot that his cold ones cause fear and that's why he placed the dread banner on them, could happen to anyone. Also, in case anyone is wondering about the cost of the black guards, I know that the errata/FAQ of the Dark Elves says that Kouran is an upgrade for the unit champion (and thereby should cost those extra 14pts) but in the Dark Elves book it says that you take Kouran instead of a unit champion and we decided to simply have him as a replacement at 75pts.

At the first look of this battle I had a feeling it would be a very close battle.

Deployment
Due to the rather small table at my place we deployed along the short edges instead of the long sides. Also, we unfortunately didn't have access to any terrain today so books and tablecloth would have to suffice. The two books represents hills and the tablecloth represents a mountain that is impassable terrain.

I deployed: The catapult on the hill together with the liche Priest, guarded by a tomb swarm due to the 360 degree line-of-sight in case of anything breaking through the lines. In front of the hill the skeleton warriors where positioned, flanked by the skeleton heavy horsemen on the right side and by the chariots on the left side, deployed together with my Prince. On the left flank of the chariots my tomb scorpion where deployed so no tunnelling this time.

My opponent deployed: Corsairs in the centre and his black guards at the flank opposing my skeleton heavy horsemen. On the other flank, behind the mountain he deployed his cold one knights together with his Master. Behind them all on the hill he deployed his repeater crossbows to cover their advance.



Battle Prelude
Prince Rhatep stared with his empty sockets into the blistering wind, his bones were polished white by the everlasting sandstorms. This was his chance to prove to his father, king Tutan'khe, that he was as worthy a soldier as his brother, prince Kha'tek. Their lands had been crossed by some tall, slender warriors that were rather frail looking, yet still seemed like worthy opponents. They were most likely in these lands hunting for buried treasures, the same reason as most of those who dared to cross into Nekekhara - the land of the dead.

Aenarion peered into the blowing sands, his eyes no more than small lines cut in his face. What a cursed land, he hated it already, like he hated most things of this and other worlds, he hoped this trip would be worth it. He had heard of the famous treasures in these lands, the remnants of a civilisation long gone. He snorted at the thought of this so-called fearsome dead that he had heard about, how much of a threat could something dead pose anyway? If he faced anything like that it would die a second time upon his cold lance and then he would feed their withered bones to his cold one. With that thought he steered his cold one further into the desert, followed by his subjects.

Dark Elves Turn 1
Aenarion snorted at the raggedy horde in front of him, his cold one were in for a feast tonight, he put his heels to the side of the beast and pushed the unwilling creature forward. However, the stupid thing refused to heed his command and just lumbered forward slowly. The rest of his army began their advance towards the line of the undead, save for the crossbowmen that were standing firm on their hill, covering the Druchii advance.

The cold one knights failed their first stupidity test and just moved straight forward while the corsairs and black guards marched forward. With no magic and no shooting units in range very little happened this turn.

Tomb Kings Turn 1
Rhatep peered calmly at the advancing enemies, this was his day, this was his moment to prove his worth. He ordered his warriors forward and the entire battle line began to move and when in range his chariot archers fired at the opponents and caused minor casualties. On top of the hill Mesh'het, the Liche Priest, ordered the catapult to fire its terrifying projectiles at the advancing opponents only to see the first volley scatter into the wind. However, the second volley hit where it was supposed to and he could see the enemy soldiers running from the lines as they were burned to ashes, however, their formation did not break.

The Tomb Kings advanced slowly to get into a better position, the chariot archers managed to kill one black guard and the screaming skull catapult managed to kill four corsairs.



Dark Elves Turn 2
With a disgruntled snarl Aenarion watched his corsairs go up in flame, at least the wretches didn't panic from the raining skulls. He kicked the beast beneath him into submission and placed himself and his elite knights in the shades beneath the mountain, lying in wait while using the corsairs as a living bait for the inferior piles of bones on the other side. The corsairs in the centre braced themselves for the charge of the chariots that they knew were coming. From his position beside the corsair unit Kouran the black guard readied himself for a charge from the skeleton cavalry, he would cut them to smithereens.

The Dark Elves kept advancing and the cold one knights wheeled up to be able to charge anything breaking through the Dark Elves formation. The black guards and corsairs both moved within charge distance of the Tomb Kings battle lines.

Tomb Kings Turn 2
Rhatep judged the time to be right and led his chariots into a charge into the slender warriors before him - this was his day, now he would prove himself! As his charioteers crashed into the enemy lines the elven warriors were crushed beneath them, splintered pieces of armour and weaponry were thrown at all sides as the elves were transformed from an organised line into a bloody mess. Rhatep raised his blood-soaked spear of Antarhak in victory and followed the last few survivors that tried to run from the onslaught. He caught up to them and showed no mercy for those who invaded his lands. From his elevated position Mesh'het could see the danger his prince was in from the lurking elves in the shades and quickly ordered the catapult to fire at them. Most of the shots were simply dodged, but he could see some of them hitting their target, however, the warrior that were hit seemed tougher then most and were unaffected by the burning projectiles.

The Tomb Kings charge the corsairs and completely destroys them, leaving only four survivors fleeing, I thought about whether or not to pursuit out of the risk of being exposed to a flank charge from the cold one knights. I decided to pursue to get the full victory points for the corsairs plus the points for the banner and I hoped my pursuit would take me far enough away not to get flank charged. Unfortunately I rolled a measly eight on three dices and ended up in a perfect flanking position for the cold one knights. I tried to fire my catapult on the knights and I managed to get three of them including the general under the template, both the ordinary knights were missed, but the general was hit and my opponent failed his look out sir! But when I rolled to wound I only rolled a two, felt like a bummer at the time, but for the sake of the game it was actually great cause my opponent prematurely thought that by now he had lost the game due to the massacre of the corsairs.



Dark Elves Turn 3
The wretches fled, the cursed dogs! That was all that Aenarion could think of as he saw his corsairs being slaughtered in the middle of the desert. He cared not about their lives, but that they fled was an insult to all Druchii. He spurred the creature beneath him into a raging charge at the head of his knights, straight into the side of the chariots, with hate burning in his eyes - in his entire body! He raised his Caledors bane and ran it through the chariots sending them hurling twenty feet into the air, wrecked, demolished, nothing but splintered wood and bone remaining. He could see the enemy Prince at the end of the lines, but before he could run his lance through the wretched being it suddenly began to whither and collapsed before his very eyes muttering an ancient curse that chilled even Aenarion's bones to the core. He could see his knights distress, but he snarled at them and drew them back in formation and ran over the remains of the prince in a rush to run down other enemies. Kouran the black knight were surprised that the skeleton horsemen and skeleton warriors before him held their ground instead of charging, like the chariots that had just destroyed the weakling corsairs had done. He figured they must stand in wait to ambush him when he charged them, well, he did not care about that and he led his black guards into a charge against the skeleton horsemen, wielding his crimson death in a spinning whirl of death destroying the bone piles in front of him, man and horse alike was thrown to the sands in twisted formations. To his surprise the last few of them withered into nothingness right before his eyes.

This turn went very well for the Dark Elves, I forgot about the +3 to strength lance of the Dark Elves and suffered the generals S7 hits on my chariots that destroyed the whole unit single handed. My Prince died due to the combat resolution and I actually forgot to roll for the curse so I just treated it like they passed it. The black guards showed why they are elite once more as they obliterated the skeleton heavy horsemen. This was a very interesting shift in the battle situation and one that definitely made my opponent in a better mood, now the Tomb Kings were in a very bad position.

Tomb Kings Turn 3
From the top of his hill Mesh'het could see the disaster that struck the guardians of the tombs, his prince laid like a withered husk in the sands surrounded by his noble charioteers. The enemy had broken through the lines that protected the hill. However, he would not give up, he would fight until the end, bitter or not. He ordered the swarms of scorpions, locusts and other abominations from deep within the earth to sally forth down the hill towards the enemies that broke through there. He raised his staff towards the skies and called down the will of the gods into the tomb scorpion that came charging from the distant sands, towards the warriors riding the lumbering beasts. His will granting it unnatural speed sending it crashing into the flank of the knights where its poisoned stinger pierced the throat of the closest knight in an instant.

Trying to turn defeat into victory I used the spell of urgency on my scorpion to get it into the flank of the cold one knights and killed one of them. I placed my tomb swarms in front of the black guards to redirect them from my catapult and more importantly from my hierophant, this actually worked better then expected. The skeleton warriors held their ground for the moment waiting for a better moment to act.



Dark Elves Turn 4
His knights were locked down in the flank by the assaulting scorpion, what a foul beast, towering even above the cold ones! Aenarion once again let out a disgruntled snort and the knight on the end managed to hit the scorpion, pushing it back and allowing them to reform to face it all together. Aenarion turned to the hills behind him and ordered his crossbowmen to advance, the lazy bastards hadn't been doing anything for the entirety of the battle, it was time for them to join in the fun. On his side Kouran saw the advancing swarm of insects, but simply laughed at the feeble creatures and led his black knights against them, stamping the small things beneath his feet, such were his joy in this that he forgot about the catapult on the hill for a while and just pushed forward trampling the tiny critters.

Another decent turn for the Dark Elves, they win the combat against the scorpion and are allowed to reform to face it, the black guards kill the tomb swarm easily, however, my opponent decides to make an overrun, possibly to avoid getting hit in the rear by my skeletons or to get closer to the catapult, he has some bad luck though and rolls a double six and the black guards end up outside the table and is therefore effectively out of the battle for a turn since they can't charge on the turn they re-enter.

Tomb Kings Turn 4
Mesh'het stared calmly at the mess beneath the hill, the black clad warriors had run over the swarms he sent into their path, but seemed pre-occupied with hunting down the remnants of them. He could see the scorpion dodge the strikes of all the mounted knights with impressive agility before its stinger pierced another one of them while its claws cut another one in half. Once again Mesh'het raised his hands into the air and called down the will of the sun god, this time giving the skeletal warriors hasted movement allowing them to outflank the knights which were enough to cause them to break from battle.

This turn things switched back into favour for the Tomb Kings as the combined assault of the scorpion and skeletons were enough to make the cold one knights break from combat and be hunted down by the pursuing Tomb Kings.

Dark Elves Turn 5
The wretches fled, his cold one knights abandoned him! The cursed bastards! Aenarions last breath in this world was uttered in a curse to his knights as they tried to flee through the skeleton lines, only to be drawn down and killed by bony hands. Aenarion tried to fend himself killing one of the bone-piles, but before long the scorpions stinger pierced his heart and he fell to the ground dead. On the other side of the battlefield Kouran calmed down and could see the catapult on top of the hill, a very tempting prize indeed and he began his advance towards it. On the other side of the hill the crossbowmen were burning with hate at the sight of their masters demise, advancing far beyond safety they attempted to bring down the enemy priest with their arrows. The damnation on top of the hill seemed to be controlling the other abominations, as one man they all raised their bows to the sky and fired a deadly volley into the air.

The black guards returned to the board, but were unable to charge the catapult, therefore, just moving closer to it to charge it in the following turn. The repeater crossbowmen moved closer to be able to fire at the liche priest standing with the catapult. All hits, but one struck the catapult, the last one killed a regular crew member.

Tomb Kings Turn 5
Mesh'het observed the incoming cloud of arrows calmly, not twitching as they hit the ground around him killing one of the crew members. He observed the black clad warriors closing in behind him and gave the orders for the remaining crew to move the catapult downhill to keep it out of reach. He ordered the skeleton warriors and the scorpion on the field to begin their advance again, the scorpion went towards the crossbowmen flank while the skeletal warriors went in as a blockade between the crossbowmen and Mesh'het himself.

I moved my catapult down from the hill and out of sight from the black guard, thereby saving it from certain destruction. On the other side I blocked the crossbowmen from firing at my liche priest with my skeleton warriors.



Dark Elves Turn 6
The crossbowmen cursed the wretched beings that blocked their line of sight, well, be it that way they would make their presence felt. Once again they raised their crossbows, this time against the bony figures ahead of them, and unleashed a deadly salvo, destroying more than half of them outright. As Kouran reached the top of the hill he could see the result of the battle, his master had been slain with all of his guards, the remaining troops were being surrounded. Kouran knew that the battle were lost and he decided that the most important thing would be to return home and inform the other masters about this so that they could return to seek vengeance for this disgrace.

There was not much the Dark Elves could do this turn besides firing at the skeleton warriors which gave a good result. The black guards moved up on the hill without being able to charge since it was the last turn of the battle.

Tomb Kings Turn 6
Mesh'het knew that the black clad warriors on the hill were observing him, now he would show them the true horror of the guardians of Nekekhara. He raised his hands into the air, once again calling down the will of the sun god Ptra, invoking the ancient texts written by Djedra, at the sound of the ancient tongue the warriors fallen in battle began to rise again, taking their positions once more amongst their brothers in arms. He then turned to the scorpion and ordered it into the ranks of the crossbowmen, slaying them in an instant as the ranks broke and tried to run from the ferocious beast.

The Tomb Kings managed to raise the skeleton warriors back over half strength making sure the Dark Elves wouldn't get any victory points for them. The scorpion wiped out the crossbowmen completely.



Battle Aftermath
As Kouran saw the defeated warriors rise again he knew for certain that he had to report this to his masters, he was not fleeing, he was doing his duty to his kinsmen. They had to know about what had occurred here today, this enemy had proven far more formidable than they first anticipated. He looked one last time over the battlefield, observing the remains of his master and all of his former comrades, weaklings the whole lot of them, that's why they died! Nonetheless, the death of a master called for vengeance no matter the reason!

Mesh'het watched as the black warriors left the scene of the battle, unfortunately he didn't have the manpower available at the moment to pursue them. All the faster units in the army were destroyed and would take a long time to bring back to service. He also knew that he had to inform the king that one of his sons had fallen in battle, bringing back one of the princes was far beyond his own skill. It was up to the king to decide whether or not his son was worthy of being returned to service, and if so it had to be done by someone of far greater skill. He ordered the skeleton warriors to gather the remains of the fallen prince and prepare to return to the necropolis where king Tutan'khe were waiting.

The battle ended with a solid victory for the Tomb Kings.

Post-Battle Notes/Thoughts
I got seriously lucky towards the end of this battle with the black guards overrunning too far and my scorpion and skeleton warriors being able to break and catch his cold one knights, then his crossbowmen. Also, my opponent used several standards which gave me a lot of victory points.

[sorberec]

TOMB KINGS vs DARK ELVES 1100pts


Dark Elves

Heroes
Aenarion (Master) @ 172pts
Repeater crossbow
Additional hand weapon
Heavy armour
Sea cloak
Cold one
Caldors bane
Talisman of protection

That seems to be a bit of an odd load out for that Master.

The additional hand weapon is pointless since he has to use Caledor's Bane as it's a magic weapon. Even if he didn't have Caledor's Bane, I'm pretty sure it's only infantry that get an extra attack for having an additional hand weapon

[Toshiro]

That seems to be a bit of an odd load out for that Master.

The additional hand weapon is pointless since he has to use Caledor's Bane as it's a magic weapon. Even if he didn't have Caledor's Bane, I'm pretty sure it's only infantry that get an extra attack for having an additional hand weapon

Yes, you are correct, only infantry gets the extra attack from additional hand weapon, my opponent is still pretty new to the game and makes a few mistakes like this, but he's learning =)

[KHolbourn]

Cheers for that report. It made for great reading with "mini-fluff" on a turn by turn basis. Looking forward to reading more.

[sorberec]

Yes, you are correct, only infantry gets the extra attack from additional hand weapon, my opponent is still pretty new to the game and makes a few mistakes like this, but he's learning =)

Ah right, that explains it. The missus took 2 arcane items (not scroll or power stone) on her sorceress last time we had a battle.

"But it says magic items up to 50 points in the army book..."

[Toshiro]

@KHolbourn: Thanks mate, I had a lot of fun writing the fluff for this one and I hope to continue with fluff battles, put a whole new perspective on it and made it a lot more fun to play =)

@Sorberec: Yah, I recognise that one, I've done the same mistake myself, taking both magic armour and magic shield thinking "it's 50pts and it's not the same slot..." lol.

[w3rm]

Seemed like a great game. I hope many more to follow.

[selone]

Indeed I hope theres more to follow, I liked the 'in character' stuff you do at the start of every turn, similar to what I did for Nork

[Toshiro]

@w3rm: It was a great game, one of the most fun I've had the pleasure of playing so far thanks to the major shifts back and forth in terms of leading positions, made it very interesting all the way. I've got a follow-up game planned with a Lizardmen player, hope to get the time to play it soon =)

@selone: Thanks, I love fluff myself and I love to read fluffed battle reports. More battles will definetly follow =)

[Seabo]

Nice recovery. Looked rather bleak for you there when the prince got pasted.
Love the fluff too

[Toshiro]

Yah, when I saw first my chariots, my prince and then my cavalry be smashed completly in the same round I figured I were pretty screwed, but shame he who folds!

Got very lucky though when breaking his cold ones and wiping out his general, putting me back in the game, not to mention his black guards overrunning to far and finally wiping out his RXB in the last round. Was a very close one, those are my favourite games though =)

Glad you like the fluff =)

Looks like the next game might take place this friday, hope so

[SevenSins]

nice one, Toshiro, and a strong comeback, thought he had you there.

as for the swarm overrun, might tip your friend on rereading the rules for charging skirmishers

[Malorian]

Nice battle and good to see the tomb kings winning.

Too bad the pictures were posted after the report, had you edited them into the original report it would have made it better.

Hopefully to keep those horsemen as you start playing bigger battles.

[Keller]

Great report! It was a pleasure to read and extremely well written! I sure hope there's more to come!

[Toshiro]

@SevenSins: Yah, maybe I should hint him to that and thanks, glad you liked it =)

@Malorian: Thanks Mal, I tried to get the pictures into the report but unfortunately it made the post to long next time I might post the army lists first, then followed by the batrep with pictures included

And the horsemen aren't going anywhere except into an enemy flank, they might be a bit of a waste of inc, but I like the srawny buggers none-the-less

@Keller: Thanks! Glad you enjoyed reading it! I hope to keep it up =)

[Malorian]

And the horsemen aren't going anywhere except into an enemy flank, they might be a bit of a waste of inc, but I like the srawny buggers none-the-less

I always thought a fully ranked heavy horsemen unit would be very deadly.

You will charge turn two, since you are picking your battles you will most likely win, and you will outnumber.

Sounds fun to me

[Toshiro]

Problem is their low armour save, a heavy cav with only 4+ AS isn't exactly amazing

But I'll keep them on anyway, my slow moving bone-piles need something with a little bit of speed

Besides, I want to use everything in the book regularly, even the bone giant even though he's never managed to kill anything in any battle I've used him in

[Once Bitten]

Great report, Toshiro. Really enjoyable reading.

[Toshiro]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it =)