Dude, Where's My Tomb King?

The Elf Lord considered the hunched figure before him. Mizard Wodel, was possibly the most unconventional Elven mage in all of Athel Loren. A dabbler in many different magic lores, his appearance didn't bear the normal appearance of most Spellweavers in the forest. He was the only elf with a beard the elf knew of. Where most mages rode unicorns or elven steeds, Wodel rode a rather vicious wolf he called Dobbin. Rumors around court stated that Dobbin was a transformed Dwarf that was compelled to obey his every whim. Whether true or not, it added an air of uncertainty around him. 
"My Lord, The Great Necromancer has returned. He is already moving towards Greywater Tower.". Wodel's words had a chilling effect on the Elven Prince.
"Sound the hunting horns, we ride to Greywater Tower, the crows will feast!".

Yes, it's time for another battle report. Another team effort from the usual bunch of reprobates. This time it was Vinny's turn to suffer my Elven wrath. Despite advice to the contrary, I have had a hankering to play a game using the new magic rules from the Khaine - End Times book. The rules are pretty much Warhammer but not as we know it Jim. Double the magic dice, every mage knows all the spells from their lores, special End times spells and a few other whistles and bells to go along with it. Basically, a rather roided up magic phase which in all probability will be detrimental to the rest of the game - or will it? One thing we did decide is that a dispelled spell counted as a failed casting as otherwise (it was thought) the magic phase would become too overpowered.

The Elven Undead Redeadeners

 Lords 

The Elf Without a Name - Glade Lord Daith's Reaper,  Charmed Shield,  Potion of Foolhardiness,  Talisman of Endurance, Asrai Longbow, Great Eagle, Hagbane Tips, Hand Weapon, Light Armor
Elfinel The Eternally Cackling - Spellweaver Dispel Scroll, Talisman of Preservation, Tormentor Sword, Asrai Longbow, High Magic, Level 4, Unicorn
Mizard Wodel - Spellweaver  Fencer's Blades,  Obsidian Amulet, Asrai Longbow, Elven Steed, Level 4, Lore of Beasts

 Heroes 

Glimmerdill The Bellicose - Glade Captain  Hail of Doom Arrow, Gambler's Armour, Asrai Longbow, Asrai Spear, Battle Standard, Elven Steed, Hagbane Tips, Light Armor, Shield
Prawkus  - Branchwraith

Core 

Dryads Branch Nymph, 24x Dryads
Glade Guard 13x Glade Guard 13x Starfire Shafts
Glade Riders [Standard Bearer] 7x Glade Riders Starfire Shafts
Glade Riders 5x Glade Riders, Hagbane Tips

Rare 

Great Eagle (Eddie)
Great Eagle (Squawkie)
 8x Waywatchers

 Special 

 7x Sisters of the Thorn, Standard Bearer, Musician
8x  Wardancer, Champion, Musician
3x Warhawk Riders, Wind Rider
5x Wild Riders, Champion,
5x Wild Riders,Champion, Standard Bearer,

Nagash's Ever Increasing Hordes

 Lords

Nagash
Rules: Arch-Necromancer, Death Magic Incarnate, Large Target, Level 5 Wizard, Supreme Lord of Undead, Bit of a Know-it-all, Terror, Undead
Krell, Mortarch of Despair, Nagash's Bitch.
Tomb King No sense of direction

Heroes  

Liche Priest Hierophant, Lore of Nehekhara, Wizard Level 1
Necromancer Lore of the Vampires, Wizard Level 1

Core 

Crypt Ghouls Champion , 20x Crypt Ghoul
Crypt Ghouls Champion, 20x Crypt Ghoul
Dire Wolves Champion , 5x Dire Wolf
Dire Wolves Champion , 5x Dire Wolf
Skeleton Warriors ,Champion , Musician , 20x Skeleton Warrior
Zombies , 20x Zombie
Zombies Musician , 20x Zombie

 Rare

Casket of Souls
Screaming Skull Catapult Skulls of the Foe

 Special 

Grave Guard,Champion , Musician
20x Grave Guard with Shield
Standard Bearer  - Banner of the Barrows

Tactical Type Stuff

Following my last successful outing. I again went with a cavalry heavy army. Especially against undead mobility is key. Of course when your enemy can just raise units around you mobility get even more important. So the only infantry block I took was dryads mainly because if you don't have something that looks like a decent target, then stuff you don't want targeted often is. I took a unit of Wardancers with Branchwraith to hopefully buff them. Warhawks and eagles to get any artillery (hopefully), Wild Riders to smash face and Sisters of the Thorn to be annoying (and with End Times magic, have access to two lores). Waywatchers as they can ruin cavalry rather easily, especially if there are Blood Knights knocking around. We had only decided that day to use Khaine magic so I changed my Dark Mage to a High one, also there was a mini drama where Vinny misplaced his Tomb King, so last minute rejigging of his list saw a Terrorgheist materialise instead (joy!). My general took a pot shot at Nagash and unsurprisingly failed to kill him. We rolled off for the first turn and it went to Vinny's undead. So with minimal vanguarding (the northernmost Direwolves only) we started the game. Not shown in the picture i deployed my waywatchers in the woods directly in front of the ones containing the wardancers, it actually turned out to be wild woods.

Setup

From up to down Warhawks,Sisters of the Thorn, Squawkie, Glade Guard, Elf general,wild riders,Beasts mage, BSB Dryads Wardancers avec Branchwraith and more wild riders. On the other side Casket of Souls, Wolves, ghouls, skeletons, grave guard (with Krell), Nagash, Terrorgheist, Zombies, Ghouls, zombies screaming skull catapult and more wolves.

least scary vanguard ever

Turn One

The undead trundled forward and the Terrorgheist flew round into the front of the tower. Something undead stumbled through the river (it was made of blood- Rraarrgh!!). Magic dice were rolled giving us an 18 - 10, the casket of souls was pretty helpful with 2 dice. Then came the casting! To be honest there were a few failed casts that only summoned a unit of three Crypt Horrors and three Vargulfs, the fomer in front of my wild riders the latter behind my glade guard. In the shooting phase the Terrorgheist attempted to scream at my Glade Guard but all that came out was some kind of miaow that scared no-one. The catapult killed a few blades of grass and maybe a bush this turn as well. No combat so it was a surprisingly unscathing turn.

Undead turn 1 movement

The ol' switcheroo

Vinny had presented me with some targets to charge so I did. Eddie the eagle charged one unit of wolves, my Warhawk riders the other aided by Squawkie. I charged my Wild Riders into the Crypt Horrors and the dryads into the succulent flank of the Terrorgheist. I  about turned my glade guard to receive a kicking from the Vargulfs and scooted the general well out of their possible overruns. Magic was 13 - 9. What does Soul Quench, Arcane Unforging, Wyssan's Wildform, Flock of Doom, Throne of Vines, Amber Spear, Walk Between Worlds and Hand of Glory all have in common? I tried to cast every one of these spells to no avail. My most sexually charged magic phase ended up in frustration. The glade Guard managed to inflict 5 wounds on the Varghulfs ,it almost seemed like they didn't want to get in combat with them. Close combat was actually pretty good for my elves, Eddie won his combat by one against the Direwolves, the Dryads crumbled the Terrogheist due to a rather weedy thunderstomp.The Warhawk riders and Squawkie went through the Direwolves like a sledgehammer through a Cadbury's Creme Egg where the Warhawks overran into the ghouls and Squwakie overran menacingly towards the Casket of Souls. The Wild Riders did a number on the Crypt Horrors mainly due, in fairness to Vinny failing 7 regeneration saves and causing 2 hits that were saved in return. Crumblicious! So ended turn one.

The mysterious case of the vanishing Undead

Meanwhile.....

Turn Two

The start of turn two was filled with the pitter patter of tiny undead feet charging. The Grave Guard tried a long charge on the Dryads (and failed), the Varghulfs charged my glade guard, a skeleton unit charged mt BSB (he fled) and the ghouls charged the Waywatchers. We then had a 14 - 9 magic phase. Invocation was cast but Ole Big Hat. A large unit of Skeletons were summoned in front of my advancing wild riders and the Ghoul unit were replenished and another 10 zombies were 'found' and added to an already big unit. I scrolled the cavalry raising spell as I thought there was far too much for me to deal with anyway, the casket was also dispelled and  Nagash ate 4 dice of power for later. The screaming skull catapult rekills a skeleton (aimed at my unicorn rider). In close combat the ghouls beat the waywatchers but I make the test on goblin leadership. Eddie kills the remains of the wolves and reforms to face the looming large unit of skeletons. The Varghulfs beat the Glade Guard but steadfast saves the day. The Warhawks win their battle with the Ghouls by 8 (much crumblage).

Wood Elf 's , eh?

It's ok guy's I think you got this

Kissagram for nagash, but instead of kisses, it's arrows!

In my turn my BSB came to his senses and rallied. All my ambushers arrive behind Nagash. The Wild Riders and Eddie charge the newly summoned skellingtons. Squawkie charges the Casket of Souls. The Dryads entered the big tower in the centre of the battlefield to mitigate the chances of getting routed by Krell's unit. I was looking forward to an awesome destructive magic phase. It turned out to be a 9 - 6 magic roll (Cuz Jason is awesome at magic). Long story abbreviated, I caused 1 wound with Flock of Doom and the wound was saved anyway. So my second assassination attempt on Nagash was in the shooting phase. Of the 20 odd shots I had on him, 5 wounds, 4 saves. This was going to be trickier than I thought! Close combat then. The lone Varghulf beats the Glade Guard but they don't break. The Warhawk Ghoul dance off is a draw. The Wild Riders/Eddie/Skellingtons combat was swift and brutal, the forces of order win combat by 15 destroying the entire unit allowing the Wild Riders to overrun into the Ghoul/Waywatcher combat. This combat went well (good job I sequenced this combats correctly) 6 Ghouls die for no dead elfs - a rare occurence in close combat considering Elven Armour usually consists of spider webs and children's dreams. Last combat was Squawkie vs the Casket of Souls. This didn't go well. Squawkie got his neck wrung by the unpleasantly competent crew.

People need to sit down while pictures are being taken because it results in me having to crop out a lot of peoples crotches!

Turn Three

Only one undead charge this turn, Grave Guard into the Dryads in the Big Brother House hoping for an eviction. Magic was 11 - 8. Scrolled Vanhel's as I didn't like the idea. Half a dozen other spells were cast (unsuccessfully) until Protection of Whatsit (sorry, that was what was written in the notes) was cast on the Grave Guard. Shooting was off target. Close combat and the Glade Guard finally dealt with the final Varghulf. The Dryad vs Grave Guard eviction special was unsuccessful for the Grave Guard and the Warhawk/Ghoul war of attrition continued.

Zombie Tactica Chapter 1 - use them to tarpit with.

 My third turn consisted of lotsa charges. My general charged Nagash. The Sisters of the Thorn and painted Glade Guard charged the zombies which contained the liche Priest. My BSB and unpainted Wild Riders charged some skellies, whilst my other Wild Rider unit, eagle and Glade Guard charged the zombies (see above picture). Magic Phase was good, 14 - 8. Then I started my next assassination attempt on Nagash. Three spells cast on my general were Pann's Impenetrable Pelt, Flesh to Stone & Shield of Thorns. Unfortunately what i didn't manage to cast was Savage Beast & Wyssans. The upshot of this magic phase was I now had a toughness 10 Elf General who now had the ability to crush rocks by smashing them into his gonads (temporarily at least). Shooting was largely uninspiring two Grave guard got skewered.

Zombie Tactica Chapter 2 - this is a bad tactica

Zombie Tactica Chapter 3 - ultimately being a zombie is about bringing people together

Close combat was fun! The Warhawks vs Ghouls ground on. The Sisters & Glade Riders vs zombies was a win by 13 ensuring that unit crumbled to nothing. The BSB & Wild Riders vs skeletons was won by 12 so they crumbled away to nothing and the Wild Rider/Glade Rider/Eddie/Zombie fight was won by a massive 29 (in the picture above the counters represent combat res).

Game End - Nagash & the Elf General settle their differences over a nice cup of tea and complained about the smell of skaven lately

Cool guys don't look at their armies exploding

The battle between Nagash & Ole Ironuts was pretty incoclusive, Nagash inflicted one wound on the elf but it was saved by the Charmed Shield. Sadly due to the redonkulous amount of time it took to play with End Times magic, we had to call the game there. We totted up the vps and a decent win for the woodies, Squawkie was the only casualty for me, dozens of corpses were deanimated.

Conclusion

Well the pre game caveat of a spell being dispelled counting as unsuccessful was I think, unnecessary. Probably the large number spell lores gave way too much choice to the magic phase, in particular Nagash with 4 or 5 lores to choose from. So to be honest I'm still not 100% sure whether I love or hate End times Khaine magic. I suppose we will have to have a rematch and add another hour to allow for it next time. I will just leave the final words on the games notes written by Stuart:

Game End Impressed skeleton continues to be impressed by elves

Game Called Due To Stupid.

Thanks for reading.

Cast

Jason; Hero Treehugger

Vinny: Villainous Treedespoiler

Stuart: Conscientious Scribe & Picure Narrator 

Phil : Magnanimous Houseowner & Luck Changerarounder

Aaron : Cameo Role