My friends and I are playing a 5 player map campaign with our own rules and I thought I’d chronicle my battle reports. Anyways since I don’t play enough games of warhammer I figure by typing up what I did I’ll better be able to analyze my tactics and improve upon them.
Note that all of these battles are at 1200 points unless stated otherwise.
So the players and their armies
The Spaniard with Ogre Kingdoms
Cheats McGee with fluff bunny Warriors of Chaos
Kneedles with Dwarves
Christophe with Orcs and Goblins
And myself with Tomb Kings
There had actually been a couple of battles before I got my first one in. I’ll list the results just for completion here. If people would like to know some more details of what happens with the battles I didn’t participate in I could write up some mini battle reports for them (they’d be much shorter that what I posted here).
The first battle was Cheats running a Tzeentch themed list up against Ogre Kingdoms, where Cheats tabled the ogre player by turn 5.
Then Christophe had two games against Kneedles. The first one Christophe won, and the second Kneedles won by a massacre.
So I had my first game against The Spaniard and his Ogre kingdoms. Be warned this battle report is actually rather long for some reason. But the detail should give you plenty of information on how my tactics played out, or maybe it won’t.
My list was
Tomb King with a flail and hat of wizardry.
Liche priest level 2 with lore of nehekhara
20 Skeleton archers
3 Skeleton chariots, with a standard and musician
21 Tomb guard with full command and halberds
3 Carrion
Casket of Souls
My opponents list
Ogre bruiser general with armor of destiny and great weapon
Ogre bruiser bsb with heavy armor and iron fist
7 iron guts with musician and standard
6 bulls with iron fists, musician and standard
6 bulls with iron fists, musician and standard
2 mournfang with heavy armor, great weapons, standard with the gleaming pendant
The campaign scenario for this round was Nurgle’s rot which reduced every models strength and toughness by 1 for the round.
http://i1144.photobucket.com/albums/...Deployment.jpg
Terrain had a river running from my deployment zone to the Ogre deployment zone cutting off about 1 foot of the table on the left side This was very handy as this is where we left our books and dice. In the middle of the board to the left was a forest and in the lower right part of the board was a building just outside my deployment zone. There was also an idol of gork and sinister statue just outside my opponent’s deployment zone.
For magic I rolled for my king who got death with got purple sun and spirit leech. My lich priest rolled up the movement spell and the 5+ ward save spell.
Deployment
I feel like I did alright with the deployment phase as my opponent was set to run his 3 ogre units straight at me with his mournfang off to the right side where I didn’t have anything. His general went into the ironguts and his bsb went into a unit of bulls. So going left to right he had 7 iron guts with the general, 6 bulls, 6 bulls with the bsb, and 2 mournfang.
I deployed in a refused flank on the right side of the river with my archers in back, my tomb guard in front of them and the carrion in front the of the tomb guard. The chariots were to my right and the casket was to my left on the other side of the river. My king went into the tomb guard and the priest went into the archers. Anyways since my king rolled up purple sun and I’ve never run death in 8th before I decided my strategy would be to cast purple sun. There wasn’t much of a strategy going into the game beyond trying to cast that spell. See based on that you can tell I’m an amazing tactician. I read in some Ogres are overpowered thread that all you need to do is cast purple sun to win.
http://i1144.photobucket.com/albums/...e_Kingdoms.jpg
Ogres turn 1
He ran his 3 ogre units towards me and his mournfang were stuck behind the bulls and the ironguts. It was a little scary how quickly he was crossing the board.
http://i1144.photobucket.com/albums/...Tomb_Kings.jpg
Tomb Kings turn 1
My carrion move up in preparation for harassment duty. The tomb guard move up some and the archers move up some so they’re in range. The magic phase was 4 dice to 1; I got of light of death on the mournfang, who were out of bsb range and the general’s range. Unfortunately my opponent rolled a 6 for his leadership test. Everything shot at the iron guts but I deal any wounds, even with the guts being toughness 3.
http://i1144.photobucket.com/albums/...e_Kingdoms.jpg
Ogres turn 2
The iron guts and both bull units moved forward, the mournfang change their minds and decide to run around the building in order to try to flank my forces.
http://i1144.photobucket.com/albums/...Tomb_Kings.jpg
Tomb Kings turn 2
I move my carrion in front of his iron guts to redirect them into the river and hopefully give my tomb guard a flank charge. My tomb guard and archers move back some. Magic 9 dice to 6. I start with a 3 dice light of death on the mournfang again and roll an 8. The ogre player lets it through and rolls a 15 on his leadership, announces he has the gleaming pendant and is rerolling his leadership test and rolls a 6. This is going to be bad as I don’t have any way to deal with the mournfang beyond magic. I cast purple sun with the other 6 dice, my opponent fails to dispel it and the sun stops right in front of his bull unit with the bsb. Everything shoots at the ironguts unit and does 2 wounds.
Things are not looking good for me as the moungfang should be dead from light of death, the purple sun is only going to hold that unit up for a turn and my shooting might as well not exist.
http://i1144.photobucket.com/albums/...e_Kingdoms.jpg
Ogres turn 3
The iron guts charge the carrion, the bull unit without characters moves up to stand behind the ironguts. The bulls with the bsb decide to not cross the purple sun and the mournfang continue their long trek around the building to my flank. The magic phase sees my opponent get 2 power dice and fail to dispel the purple sun, the sun then moves through his bsb’s unit and kills 5 guts leaving the standard bearer and the bsb. Things are starting to look up for me. The ironguts predictably crush the carrion and reform to face my tomb guard.
http://i1144.photobucket.com/albums/...Tomb_Kings.jpg
Tomb kings turn 3
I try to charge the bsb’s unit with my chariots. I need a 9 but only roll a 7. I now have a choice, I could charge his iron guts with my tomb guard but it would pull my tomb guard out of position and I think I would lose that fight quite badly as they still haven’t really been hurt. I move my archers up to be about an inch and a half behind the tomb guard. The magic phase is 6 dice to 4. I 6 dice purple sun, my opponent fails to dispel it and I roll high enough for it to go through the iron guts and the bulls behind them. Purple sun wipes the out all the iron guts but the general lives and kills 2 out of 6 bulls in the unit behind the general. I gain 3 bonus dice and cast light of death with them on the mournfang, my opponent predictable rolls a 7 and passes the leadership test. Shooting at the general revels he’s wearing the armor of destiny and fails to deal any wounds after ward saves.
http://i1144.photobucket.com/albums/...e_Kingdoms.jpg
Ogres turn 4
The general charges my tomb guard, the bsb and the bull remaining charge my chariots in the front and the mournfang get a flank charge off on the chariots. The bulls behind the general get a failed charge on the tomb guard. The chariots are destroyed and failed to deal any wounds. The mournfang over run 3 inches and fail to make it into the tomb guard. The bsb also over runs but only goes 4 inches and gets stopped by the mournfang. In the tomb guard versus bruiser general battle I decline his challenge and move my king to the back. My tomb guard however only deal 1 wound to him. He kills a few of tomb guard and wins combat by 2.
http://i1144.photobucket.com/albums/...Tomb_Kings.jpg
Tomb kings turn 4.
My thoughts were that I was like completely &@^$. My tomb guard weren’t rolling well and the bsb and mournfang were soon going to get flank charges and kill my army. The magic phase sees my get off light of death on the mournfang and it predictably fails to kill anything. I then get off the 5+ ward save on my tomb guard bringing 4 back to life. Shooting also fails to do any wounds. In combat I deal another wound to his general and his general whiffs his attacks, fails his break test and runs.
Now this part is important as I make my game winning move. I combat reform my tomb guard to be facing his mournfang, the bsb’s unit and bulls and then go from 7 wide to 12 wide in order to keep them all in my front arch.
http://i1144.photobucket.com/albums/...e_Kingdoms.jpg
Ogres turn 5
He charges my unit with his characterless unit with 4 bulls left and makes it in. The mournfang try to charge my tomb guard but fail charge as he can’t close to door to me and I can’t close to door to him. The bsb’s unit was in the way preventing him from closing the door to me. And the bsb’s unit also fails charge because the mournfang were in the way. I’m sorry I don’t have a picture to show you guys of how exactly things were positioned as it was a thing of beauty.
As only his bulls make it into combat I end up breaking them but fail to run them down. My overrun brings me into contact with the mournfang and when I close the door to him it also brings me into contact with his general. Fortunately only one mournfang is going to be in combat.
http://i1144.photobucket.com/albums/...Tomb_Kings.jpg
Tomb Kings turn 5
Magic sees me get of light of death off which kills the one remaining bull in his bsb’s unit and kills one of the fleeing bulls from the characterless bull unit. I also get off the 5+ ward on my tomb guard again. In combat my king finally man’s up and accepts his general’s challenge and deals the final two wounds needed to kill the bruiser. The tomb guard deal a signle wound to the mournfang and the mournfang deal 1 wound to the tomb guard as he rolls poorly and I roll very well for ward saves. The mournfang break from combat but successfully flee and lose their standard bearer. I chase after them bringing me into contact with his bsb.
My opponent decides to call the game here as all he has is a fleeing mournfang, his bsb in combat with my tomb guard and a single bull from the characterless bull unit.
Conclusions
So tomb kings massacre the ogres. So I really feel I got extremely lucking at a couple of key points. One was that the second purple sun wiped out the iron guts and the second was that his mournfang failed to overrun into the combat with the tomb guard and the bruiser general. I feel if either of those hadn’t gone my way I would not have won the game. On the other hand the mournfang should have died several times over from the light of death as the average roll is 10.5 and mournfang have a leadership of 7 and I got the spell off successfully several times. It’s also unfortunate that my chariots had a failed charge on his bsb’s unit with the one bull as I think they would have easily won that combat and probably run them down. But whatever, warhammer is a game of dice and the game rarely plays out the way you expect. So I feel like tomb guard aren’t that great for their price and skeleton shooting doesn’t accomplish much. However carrion are amazing for redirecting to buy you one more crucial turn.
Anyways my next game will feature a different tomb king list up against a khorne warriors of chaos army.
Also if people have suggestions to improving my battle reports I’d be glad to hear them. Sorry if the length of the report puts some people off. According to word this is 5 pages long.
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