Empire vs. Tomb Kingss

- Empire placed Arc Lector, Battle Wizard Lord and BSB with Halberdiers and Warrior priest joined inner circle knights.

After long consideration my opponent choosed to keep the spell he rellod (and not swap to earth blood. ) So the spells his level 4 got was Flesh to Stone, Throne of Vines, Regrowth and Dwellers)

- Hierophant joined Archer 2 unit and tomb king inside the skeleton warriors.

I rolled 1, 2, 2 and 6. Immediately swapped skull strom to desert wind. Then after some consideration I choosed to take Dessication. So my spells were (Desert Winds, Cursed Blades, Protection and Dessication)

Empire got +1 to starting roll and won the first turn.

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Deployment Analyze

- I think my deployment was little better than usual. Archers 3 purpose was to block scouts and be a speed bump to demigryphs. Necroshpinx was facing inner circle knights with his killing blows.

Battle Wizard managed to cast Throne of Vines to him self.

During Shooting Steam Tank destroyed skull catapult. Great cannon hitted Necrosphinx but got native 1 on to wound roll.

I charged to detachment archers with Carrions. I was 20 inches apart from them so I needed ten with swiftride. Archers 3 tried to swift reform, but failed the test. At least they managed to make a road block for demigryphs.

Magic was great at first, I rolled 2 + 2 and with casket 3 and channeled. So I had 8 PD and my opponnent only 2. I tried to cast with 2 pd dessication on halberds but failed it. Then 6 diced casket, no double 6 and my opponent used scroll.

Shooting was next to nothing. I shooted that other archer unit and managed to kill only 3 models and reroll LD 9 panic test was passed. Catapult scatterd from halberdier unit.

Carrions wiped archers out, and for the greatest luck managed to panic Inner Circle Knights, they were just inches away from BSB. This picture is Little off, but those Carrions were in such angle that they couldn't overrun to helblaster or halberdier. I could have charged them with different place and could have charged to halberdiers, but that would have been suicide. Anyway decided to reform.

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Turn Analyze:

- Those Carrions really out performed. I really have to admit that I will probably play them more often, since that 10 inch fly movement is just something that I desperately need with these sluggish dudes.

My opponent didn't charge to carrions with his Halberdiers. He charged demigryphs to my speed bump. He used 3 steam points to movement and rolled 1 inch shot from archers 1. Inner Circle Knight failed Rally and run off the table ( GO Carrionrs! ) At movement phase those carrions were just in the right place to stop his halberdier from moving. He couldn't even wheel them due the horde formation. So he backed up a little.

Magic was pretty much nothing he casted flesh to stone 4+ to his halberdiers (in order to reduce shooting wounds or something like thät.

At shooting He used both helblasters to kill that carrion unit. He used master engineers with both weapons. He rolled incredible low results from artillery dices and with to hit to wound rolls. 1 Carrion was left with 2 wounds on him. He made long and hard decision whether to shoot that last carrion with the cannon or not. Finaly he maded his mind and shot it, then he managed to hit and rolled again 1 to wound. So that carrion had 1 wound left on him! At this moment he was really angry since he forgot to bought any shooitng weapons for master Engineers Steam tank managed to destroy another catapult.

I rolled extremely well with EBtS mostly hits or just 2 inches scatter.. Necrosphinx managed to do long charge to hellblaster (this picture is little off) but I was 19 inches away from it. I backed a little with archers 2 and swift reformed with archers 1 and took that 2 inches movement to sideways.. I also left archers 2 with my Hierophant and joined the warriors. Tomb Swarms really payed off as another road bump for demigryphs.

Magic was again great. if I remember correctly it was WoM 2 + 3 and 3 from casket. I casted Cursed Blades to carrions and managed to heal them 4 wounds. I managed to do 5 wounds to Steam Tank with casket

Shooting: This picture is again little off. That Master Engineer was about 20 inches away from Archers 1 and I realized that I could actually shoot that poor bastrad. Managed to do 1 wound with 14 shots (he passed look out sirs little over average)

Necrosphinx overruned to halberdiers and carrions destroyed great cannon.

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Turn Analyze

- That long Shinx Charge really payed off and was one of the key moments of the game.

- Carrionrs really increased on my sight, they have fairly decent statline and since they are really worth of healing that d3+1 (compared to regular skeletons / archers) I really think they are much greater. I originally posted idea that Carrions seemed bad on paper, but I am clearly wrong on the matter. The reason why I though they were little bad, because I compared them to High Elven Great Eagle, one of the greatest chaff ever. But unlike Great Eagles they are actually decent "soft hammer"

- Tomb Swarms also have their uses. I am not sure if they are really worth of throw away (being 80 points) but at least in this game they managed to keep those demigryphs off from fairly important battles. I think they have another great use compared to scorpion. Say you want to screen BS shooting. (We play with technical line of sight not True Line of Sight in my local group), so those swarms can really make hard covers for rest of the unit. They are also so goddam worthless to shoot and have 10 wounds compared to 3 of scorpion. And then if opponent have a choice between hard cover or scorp it is rather easy to shoot the scorp. I actually could see me playing Tomb Swarm again.

He charged with steam tank and demigryphs.

Magic was interesting since if i remember correctly he got WoM 1 + 2 and channeled 2 dices. So I was at 2 dice and he with 5 or 6? Anyway, he tried to flesh to stone +4 to his halberdiers with all the dices and got no double 6. So I dispel scrolled it and dispelled thrones with those 2 dispel dices at this time.

Shooting was excellent. He tried to kill my scorpion with hellblaster. He threw 2 misfire, but due Master Engineer he got a chance of reroll, but rolled missfire again. Since there were two missfires he rolled from missfire table and rolled whopping 1.

Demigryphg anhilated tomb swarm. Halberdiers lost the combat by 3 but steadfast, ld 9 reroll with the Hold The Line kept him on the board. Best part was that the first roll was 5 + 6 + 6 but reroll saved. He managed to get combat reform with reroll ld 6 and turned his flank. Perhaps the best part of this turn was Steam Tank, it managed only to kill 3 skeletons and King truly had His Will Done, when Destroyers of Eternities scored Heroic Killing Blow on the tank.

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Turn Analyze

- I took the Destroyer of Eternities mainly against the Steam Tank, and it worked this time. It would have been very decent chance with Cursed Blades to have semi reliable HKB.

Multiple Charges to Halberdiers. Too bad those Skeleton Warriors needed native 10 to get in the combat. They failed the charge. This picture is actually once again little off. Those skeleton archers did swift reform and I managed to put them so that only two demigryph was able make charge against the archers.

Magic was pretty lame. I tried to cast Dessication on the Halberdiers, but it failed. Then managed to IF casket, but did only one wound to Demigryphs.

Archers managed to shoot master engineer dead.

On the close combat those Knights, scorpions and Sphinx really grinded Halberdiers ranks. Too bad I won the combat by something like 15, but Steadfast, LD 9 reroll hold your ground... If those Skeleton Warriors would have made it in to the combat it would probably be end of the game.

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Turn analyze:

- This turn went well. Those scorpions really have their input againts infantry models.

Demigryph clipped on archers. Great Swords charged in. He also used Master Engineer to get a Rear charge from necrosphinx.

My opponent managed to cast flesh to stone with IF and power drained his level by 2 and lost flesh to stone and regrowth.

No shooting

Great Swords managed only to do 2 wounds on Scorpion. I calculated that flesh to stone saved 8 lives from halberdirs. That combat was draw and both sides had musicians. Those archers stopped Demigryphs and most importantly managed to deny their overrun. I actually failed to kill that master engineer with 4 attack (used HKB against BSB in Base Contact) I used thunderstomp to get rid of him.

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Turn Analyze:

- That Great Sword battle was something extremely strange. Let see they got +2 rank bonus, +1 charge +2 Rear so total 5 static to this multiple combat. They managed to do 2 wounds on scorpion, so that was total of 7 CR for them. If they would have killed that scorpion they would have been dropped off from battle and only contributed 3 CR. My opponent was hoping for just 2 wounds, and that Rat bad luck really worked out this time.

I managed to do hard charge with archers 1 and easy charge with skeletons. I figured that most likely Carrions would have generated more CR for my opponent than to me (at least now when that Flesh To Stone was still on)

Magic was rather nice. Managed to bubble protection and it affected every unit over the north edge. Then failed concentration with next spell. No legal targets for casket.

No shooting

I tried to challenge my opponent with my Tomb King, but he refused ( I had killed his champion with necrosphinx earlier in the battle ) I boo hissed his BSB. At close combat both my Scorpions got killed despite ward saves. I am not complete sure that this went by the book, but we played this combat resolution so that every wound caused by this multiple hell was carried over from both combats, and then we only calculated static resolutions for great swrods and halberdiers. Both survived ld 9 reroll. I reformed with archers 1 to 10 wide formation, this way I managed to make Demigryphs charge 1 inch longer. And with skeleton Warrios I managed to get them over the charge range of gryphs.

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Turn analyze

- Challenge with Tomb King was good choice. I was hoping for bad LD rolls, so that Reroll wouldn't asave him, but unfortunately that didn't happend.

- That combat reform to deny demigryphs charge was perhaps the best "tactiall" choice I made this turn.

Demigryphs tried to get long charge against arhcers but failed miserably, only advancing somehting like 2 inches.

Magic was next to nothing. He tried Arch Lectors innate bound spells to get some last minute hope.

Close combat, he was won by 9 but managed to roll double 1 with Break test. Great swords won the combat by 1 and reformed.

I made a charge with carrions on great swords behind.

Magic was next to nothing. Casket failed to deliver.

Close combat with great swords was a tie, if I remember correctly. Halberdiers broke of and I actually said that I pursuit them with all. I ain't sure how this really should have been played, but I decided to "move" first necrosphinx, then skeleton warrios so the pumped in each other and then necropolish knights. I realized now that it actually wasn't legal to do so. Those necroplos Knights would have also just pumped with nexrosphinx and they all would have been in the same place.

Demigryphs failed to charge again.

Great Swords won the combat by few.

Picture is little off. That necrosphinx managed to charge quite easily against those great swords.

Casket failed to kill demigryphs.

Too bad it wasn't enough. Something like 2 models survived and stubborn roll save dthem.

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So final score was 2181 - 510