Eternal Rule In Glory For Queen Hapshetsida!

Today I took my Tomb Kings army, the War Host of the Red City, over to the Pontio Centre in Bangor. There, in a room filled with young nerds (and one much older nerd), the ancient warriors of the Red City obeyed the will of their Queen and Priests, and defeated a Chaos force of Tzeentch and Undivided warriors and daemons in honourable battle...

Or in other words I met up with N, a student at Bangor and member of LUNAR (I told you I'd keep calling it that) and had my first ever game of The Old World. We agreed on 2,000 points, and I brought the following:

CHARACTERS:
Tomb Queen (The Conqueror's Blade, Death Mask of Kharnutt, Relic of the Desert Sun)
Herald (Standard of the Cursing Word)
Lvl 4 High Priest (Staff of Awakening - rolled Deathly Cabal, Curse of Years, Spirit Leech, picked Incantation of Dessication)
Lvl 2 Priest (Hieratic Jar, Earthing Rod - rolled Spiritual Vortex, picked Incantation of Cursed Blades)
CORE UNITS:
18 Tomb Guards with full command, light armour, shields, halberds
20 Skeleton Warriors with full command, light armour, shields, spears
20 Skeleton Warriors with full command, light armour, shields, spears
10 Skeleton Archers with champion, warbows 
10 Skeleton Archers with champion, warbows 
10 Skeleton Archers with champion, warbows 
10 Skeleton Horse with full command, light armour, shields, cavalry spears
5 Skeleton Horse Archers with champion, musician, warbows
3 Light Chariots with full command, warbows, cavalry spears
3 Tomb Swarms
SPECIAL UNITS:
3 Carrion 

Exactly 2,000 points, over half of which was in the Core Units section (1,159 points)!

N brought:

CHARACTERS:
Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Chariot, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Lvl 4 magic (Fireball, Pillar of Fire, Oaken Shield... possibly something else?)
Daemon Prince, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Lvl 1 magic (Daemonsword, Extra Arm - rolled Daemonic Familiars)
CORE UNITS:
16 Chaos Warriors, Mark of Chaos Undivided
16 Chaos Warriors, Mark of Chaos Undivided
5 Chaos Knights, Mark of Chaos Undivided (I think?)
SPECIAL UNITS:
16 Chosen Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch (the champion had the Filth Mace)

There were I think other magic items, but I never encountered them.

We rolled for a scenario using the rulebook's list and got Meeting Engagement. This meant some of our armies were in reserve from the start, rolled for unit by unit (including characters, war machines etc). I ended up with my Tomb Guard (which contained my Queen and Herald!) in reserve along with the cavalry, horse archers, and the carrion. I immediately realised that while the army had camped out, the Queen had taken her bodyguard and cavalry to go hunting... Meanwhile, N's Sorceror Lord in chariot and a unit of Warriors ended up in reserve. 

The hunting party in reserve. Presumably the Queen wanted a new rug, or something, because none of these people eat any more...

Deployment was diagonal, and I picked a table half that had a small hill on so I could put most of my archers on it, along with my High Priest. His junior, the Priest, stood at the foot of the hill. The two regiments of Skeleton Warriors flanked the archers, while the Tomb Swarm was pushed out on the flank to act as a speedbump. The Chariots were held back a little to, hopefully, charge whatever got stuck on the Swarm or defeated it and ended up in charge range of them. Meanwhile N finished deploying a lot faster than me - he positioned in a line, with his Spawn pushed a little further forwards. His Knights were out on his extreme right flank, able to use their speed to swing round and - potentially - trap my Chariots and push into the flank of my position.

Overall deployment. Behind the tower in the middle of the field can just be seen the Chaos Knights

Red City War Host deployment - the big gap between the Skeleton Warrior units should have a Tomb Guard unit in it; it did at least allow the archers to shoot things despite not being on the hill

Chaos deployment - the Knights on the left, Daemon Prince and Warriors in the centre, Spawn and Chosen Warriors on the right. Those hedges around the statue definitely got a beating later on

With deployment complete, we diced for first turn. As is typical, we drew on the first roll and then N won the re-roll. So the Chaos army advanced on the waiting skeletons, still and silent in the morning air...

End of Chaos Turn 1 - a general advance on all fronts, and a bit of jockeying for position by the Chosen as the Spawn meandered towards the War Host's lines. The Knights marched forwards at speed, looking to swing around and threaten my flank

End of Tomb Kings Turn 1 - the Tomb Swarm moved forwards, aiming to block the Warriors and possibly the Daemon Prince. My hope was to slow them long enough to get a charge off with the Chariots before the Knights arrived. Ideally my reinforcements would turn up to deal with the Knights before they could make a mess of my bone boys. The Priest, Weret-Hekau, cast Incantation of Cursed Blades on one of the archer units on the hill, allowing them to re-roll 1s to hit. The combination of Arrows of Asaph and the re-roll lead to absolutely nothing because they were out of range! On the bright side, the archers at the foot of the hill wounded the Spawn

 

End Chaos Turn 2 - the obvious happened, and the Daemon Prince and Warriors charged the Tomb Swarm. One base was killed by Daemonic Familiars, which put out 12 S2 hits (!) and the Warriors put some more wounds on the remainder. The poison attacks of the Swarm killed one (1) whole Warrior. Meanwhile - (to my surprise) it turned out that units in Reserve can arrive in any turn chosen by the player, so (of course) the Sorceror Lord and another regiment of Warriors arrived. There was a bit of a traffic jam as they marched on behind the Chosen, but the appearance of another block of Warriors was a bit unsettling I must admit

End of Tomb Kings Turn 2 - I brought my "shock" cavalry on behind the Knights, and the Carrion in front, and swung them around ready to charge or be charged. The Chariots however were not in a good place - in my turn the Tomb Swarm was destroyed, and the Warriors overran by 11"! The Daemon Prince was much slower, going a paltry 9"... so much for my plan to slam the Chariots into something at speed. My Horse Archers came on and moved to try to support the centre, while the Queen, Herald, and the Tomb Guard came on to act as a fire brigade against anything that - I assumed inevitably - broke through my Skeleton Warriors, who I had repositioned to protect my archers and Priests... speaking of the archers, they killed the Spawn. Arrows of Asaph, although they're only hitting on 5s, will always hit on 5s. Very reliable, strangely enough, especially in quantity

End of Chaos Turn 3 - fear came out to bite N's troops this turn. Both the Warriors in the centre and the Knights on the flank failed their fear tests and couldn't charge their targets. The Daemon Prince, who is of course Immune to Psychology, was not perturbed by the skeletal horses and ancient finery of the Chariots, and made a charge into their flank. Oh dear. The Chosen (whose Champion achieved Apotheosis! on the Gaze of the Gods table) continued stamping all over the hedges, and the second Warrior regiment wheeled to begin the march around the wooded hill. The Sorcerer Lord failed to get a Fireball off but did manage to put a Pillar of Flame in front of my Skeletons (see the yellow die in the image), which was quite worrying. In combat the Daemon Prince only managed to inflict a couple of wounds, but I did an oopsie-woopsie and erroneously gave the Chariots a rank bonus (??) and didn't take wounds from Unstable - sorry N! - when I lost the combat

End of Tomb Kings Turn 3 - the Knights didn't survive the combat, losing mainly to combat resolution, breaking, and being crushed between the two units that had trapped them. They did manage to put a couple of wounds on one of the Carrion, though. This was a big relief, as it meant the very scary Knights had been removed with comparative ease and the bulk of N's army was now slow and unlikely to pose a significant threat. The archers killed a couple of Chosen thanks to the auto-wounding on 6s rule, and the spear regiment on the right flank moved forwards a bit to block the Warriors that had arrived this turn from getting into the archers. The Pillar of Fire moved backwards, towards the Sorceror Lord, and was then dispelled. Meanwhile, the Chariots came off much the worst against the Daemon Prince (who had a base of 5 attacks, plus 1 from the Extra Arm, plus another d3 from the Daemonsword) who made a nice big overrun move towards my open left flank. My Horse Archers, who I had not yet realised are actually Skirmishers, moved into the wood to try to shoot at something. Then I forgot to shoot with them. Oops!

  

End of Chaos Turn 4 - the Warriors who had fought the Tomb Swarm wheeled to line up against the Horse Archers, the Chosen continued their war against the local hedgerows (for, presumably, some esoteric vision quest required by the Changer of the Ways) while the other Warriors moved forwards a little to threaten the spear regiment on my right flank. The Daemon Prince, now powered up with an extra attack (thanks to the Gaze of the Gods) charged my Tomb Guard right in the flank, piling into Itetaten, the Royal Herald, and a Tomb Guard stood behind him. The Prince issued a challenge to the Queen, and with a languid and regal wave, the Captain of the Scarab Guard, Edifis, marched forth to do battle against the terrible thing. Predictably, the Prince turned Edifis into a pile of disjointed bones and armour. The resulting combat resolution was a narrow win for the Tomb Guard (5 wounds vs 3 ranks, a standard, outnumbering... and a musician). Here we made a mistake - even though the Daemon Prince is Unbreakable, it should have Given Ground 2", enabling me to Restrain and Reform, or Follow Up - either way, instead of continuing the fight in the flank, the regiment should have been fighting the Daemon Prince properly, with the front rank. Ah well. Live and learn! Meanwhile, the Sorceror Lord, also granted an extra attack by his fickle patrons, failed to get off a Fireball (again) but did put up another Pillar of Fire which was much better placed to do nasty things to my skeletal soldiery

End of Tomb Kings Turn 4 - the open rear of the Warriors was too inviting, and the Carrion flew towards them, ready to charge them in the rear next turn (or at least pin them in place for a potential flank charge by the cavalry). The bulk of the army stood still, and although a few skeletons were burned to ash by the Pillar of Fire they were immediately commanded to Arise! by Weret-Hekau (sadly, Weret-Hekau did not command them to move out of the column of magical fire), while Ptah-Um-Setek reassembled Edifis' bones. The Pillar of Fire was not dispelled. This would become a reoccurring problem. The archers volleyed more Arrows of Asaph at the Chosen, killing two more. The Horse Archers, foolishly but heroically, made use of their Skirmishing ability to charge the Daemon Prince. We then had a bit of a digression where we tried to work out if a lone character has a flank to be charged, and after a roll to see which interpretation would be used, the Prince was indeed charged in the flank. It then proceeded to do six wounds to the five Horse Archers, and only some lucky Regeneration rolls allowed the champion, Sethisbakup, to continue fighting. This combat was vicious, and the Daemon Prince was dropped to just one wound. Again, this should have resulted in a Give Ground followed by either Restrain and Reform or a Follow Up, and again, the Tomb Guard should have been fighting at full effect. As it was, the combat would continue...

 

End of Chaos Turn 5 - powered up with two extra attacks, the Sorceror Lord decided to give up on trying to cast Fireball and instead slammed his chariot into the skeletons in the centre. This was devastating, smashing apart a bunch with impact hits, disordering the unit so they wouldn't get a rank bonus, and then chopping up a few more in the actual combat. To add insult to injury, the Pillar of Fire that had killed some skeletons from this unit in the turn before did the same again! Honestly. Don't they know that the Tomb Priests have to spend effort raising them from piles of ash? The Warriors that were threatened by the Carrion turned in place and advanced a couple of inches, while the Chosen, whose Champion, apotheosis acheived, was further blessed with an extra attack. The Warriors on N's left flank just made the charge against my right flank blocking unit of Skeleton Warriors (as an aside, a short discussion about charging led to us learning that a charging unit has a free wheel to bring the most figures to bear as possible, then measures from the shortest distance to the target unit). That combat ended in a draw, with casualties, ranks, standards and musicians cancelling each other out. The Daemon Prince, ignoring Sethisbakup, inflicted six wounds (out of 10!! attacks) on the Tomb Guard. The resulting lost combat saw Sethisbackup crumbling and the Tomb Guard using Phalanx to hold their ground rather than Give Ground in the face of the daemon's fury

End of Tomb Kings Turn 5 - I gambled, and charged the Warriors with the "shock" cavalry and Carrion, while the Priests commanded as many skeletons as they could to Arise! although Weret-Hekau, even using the Hieratic Jar, failed to command any to stand back up... the Pillar of Fire, still not dispelled, at least had the good grace to move into a position where it wasn't doing me any immediate damage. With the enemy spellcasters all engaged in combat, the Priests rattled (ha) off a bunch of spells. Weret-Hekau put a Spiritual Vortex down, reducing the leadership of the Chosen, Sorceror Lord, and Warriors engaged on my right by 1. Various Hexes and Boons were chanted, and the Warriors fighting on my right, Daemon Prince, and Sorcerer Lord all suffered various ill effects while the skeletons fighting the Warriors got to re-roll any 1s to hit. In the end it mattered little, and the Tomb Guard lost again, as did both skeleton units. The Tomb Guard held fast, but both regiments of Skeleton Warriors Gave Ground. The gambled charge against the Warriors on my left didn't pay off - it was a draw, and that meant that the Warriors were going to smash my units to bits pretty quickly. Ah well, nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say

End of Chaos Turn 6 - unfortunately for N, it all started to come off the rails at this point. His Chosen moved up, assuming they may as well even though they were now almost certain never to get into combat, while everything else fought endlessly regenerating skeletons and Tomb Guard. The Pillar of Fire moved a bit and immolated some archers, but the real shock was the Sorceror Lord losing combat to the Warriors, just failing his Break Test (unable to Retire In Good Order as he was beaten by a fear causing enemy that outnumbered him), fleeing 5", and then being caught by the Skeleton Warriors who, not content with running the chariot down, pursued directly into the Chosen. The Demon Prince continued to kill a bunch of Tomb Guard, who continued to resolutely stay exactly where they were, not giving an inch in the face of this flurry of attacks. The Warriors fighting on my right flank continued slowly pushing the Skeleton Warriors back, but they couldn't quite do enough to destroy them. The Carrion and Skeleton Horse lost combat and Gave Ground, and the Warriors followed hot on their heels, happy to be fighting in praise of the Dark Gods

End of Tomb Kings Turn 6, END OF GAME - with the Pillar of Fire still setting archers ablaze and still refusing to be dispelled, the Priests set about raising Tomb Guards and Skeleton Warriors with abandon, before firing off their various Hexes and Boons. The combat between the Skeleton Horse, Carrion, and Warriors, went about as well as could be expected: the Warriors absolutely battered the Carrion and the Horse, reducing them to just two cavalry. The overconfident Skeletons in the centre, who had charged the Chosen, did not do well. The Champion, souped up and wielding the Filth Mace, killed three or four, and the rest of the Chosen reduced the unit to just four skeletons! Over on the right, the relentless advance of the Warriors pushed the Skeleton Warriors right back into contact with Weret-Hekau, who, if his mummified body could still do it, would by now be sweating. A lot. However, over in the grinding slog against the Daemon Prince, a moment of heroism and glorious martial prowess was about to occur. Itetaten, armed only with a kopesh, swung at the gloating warp-fiend, and slew it! With that, the game ended, and it was time to count the cost...

Once all the Victory Points had been tallied, it turned out that N had gained 510 VP from destroyed units (the Chariots, the Tomb Swarms, Horse Archers, and the Carrion) and units under 25% strength (the Cavalry and one of the Skeleton Warrior units). I, on the other hand, had gained 1,103 from a mix of totally destroyed units (the Sorceror Lord, Daemon Prince, and Chaos Knights) as well as bonuses from the seized banner from the Knights and, of course, the killing of the Chaos General when his chariot was caught and overrun by skeletons. A difference of 593VPs in my favour and a very solid win. But it really came down to the wire - if I hadn't killed the Daemon Prince, or the Sorceror Lord had run away a bit further, it would have been a draw. I think although the loss of the Knights, who strayed a bit too close to the board edge when I had reinforcements to come on, was a blow to N's force and plans, the real moment of victory was right at the very last, when the Sorceror Lord was killed. A mark of a good game, that, when it comes down to the wire. We are already planning our next game, too, which is a mark of a good opponent and an enjoyable time.

Now, I'm off to try and make my 3D printer print things...