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| Duel of the ages. |
The Bob and I met up at The Outpost in Johnson City for another game of Warhammer: The Old World. We agreed to play the Mountain Pass scenario from the main rulebook. What's really interesting about this scenario is the Bottleneck rule, which make both the long edges count as Impassable Terrain. This is to represent that those long edges are representing very shear cliffs and the battle field itself is a pass through a narrow valley. So the High Elves are making their way through this pass and find the ruins of an ancient settlement. These ruins are in fact Khemri in origin and the deceased denizens have risen to protect their domain and rid the pass of these Elven trespassers.
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| Deployment map for the Mountain Pass. |
Here are the armies:
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| Tomb Kings of Khemri |
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Tomb Kings of Khemri [1245 pts]
Warhammer: The Old World, Tomb Kings of Khemri, Open War
===
++ Characters [417 pts] ++
Tomb King [222 pts]
- Hand weapon
- Heavy armour
- Shield
- General
- On foot
- Talisman of Protection
- Giant Blade
Royal Herald [85 pts]
- Hand weapon
- Light armour
- Battle Standard Bearer
- On foot
Mortuary Priest [55 pts]
- Hand weapon
- Wizard [Level 1 Wizard]
- On foot
- Necromancy
Mortuary Priest [55 pts]
- Hand weapon
- Wizard [Level 1 Wizard]
- On foot
- Necromancy
++ Core Units [514 pts] ++
15 Skeleton Warriors [90 pts]
- Hand weapons
- Light armour
- Shields
- Master of Arms (champion)
- Standard bearer
- Musician
15 Skeleton Warriors [90 pts]
- Hand weapons
- Light armour
- Shields
- Master of Arms (champion)
- Standard bearer
- Musician
12 Skeleton Archers [75 pts]
- Hand weapons
- Warbows
- Master of Arrows (champion)
- Standard bearer
- Musician
3 Skeleton Chariots [141 pts]
- Hand weapons
- Cavalry spears
- Warbows
- 4+
- Master Charioteer (champion)
- Standard bearer
- Musician
10 Tomb Guard [118 pts]
- Hand weapons
- Light armour
- Shields
- Tomb Captain (champion)
- Standard bearer
- Musician
++ Special Units [154 pts] ++
3 Ushabti [154 pts]
- Hand weapons
- Ritual blades
- Heavy armour
- Ancient (champion)
++ Rare Units [160 pts] ++
Necrolith Colossus [160 pts]
- Paired great khopeshes
- Heavy armour
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Created with "Old World Builder"
[https://old-world-builder.com]
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| High Elves. |
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The Masters of Hoeth [1249 pts]
Warhammer: The Old World, High Elf Realms, Open War
===
++ Characters [286 pts] ++
Noble [156 pts]
- Hand weapon
- Sword of Hoeth
- Full plate armour
- General
- On foot
- The Loremaster's Cloak
- Seed of Rebirth
- Loremaster
Mage [130 pts]
- Hand weapon
- Wizard [Level 2 Wizard]
- On foot
- Seed of Rebirth
- High Magic
++ Core Units [316 pts] ++
14 Elven Archers [208 pts]
- Hand weapons
- Longbows
- Light armour
- Veteran
- Sentinel (champion)
- Standard bearer [The Blazing Banner]
- Musician
5 Ellyrian Reavers [108 pts]
- Hand weapons
- Cavalry spears
- Light armour
- Shortbows
- Skirmishers
- Harbinger (champion) [Burning Blade]
++ Special Units [487 pts] ++
10 Swordmasters of Hoeth [173 pts]
- Swords of Hoeth
- Heavy armour
- Drilled
- Bladelord [Burning Blade]
- Standard bearer
- Musician
8 Shadow Warriors [146 pts]
- Longbows
- Light armour
- Feigned Flight
- Shadow Walker [Seed of Rebirth]
10 Swordmasters of Hoeth [168 pts]
- Swords of Hoeth
- Heavy armour
- Drilled
- Bladelord
- Standard bearer
- Musician
++ Rare Units [160 pts] ++
Eagle-Claw Bolt Thrower [80 pts]
Eagle-Claw Bolt Thrower [80 pts]
- Repeater Bolt Thrower
- Hand weapons
- Light armour
---
Created with "Old World Builder"
[https://old-world-builder.com]
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| Tomb Kings set up. |
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| High Elf set-up. |
Tomb Kings win the roll off and go first. Nothing too exciting happened in the first round on either player turn, just a lot of arrow trading. The High Elves peppered the undead with a lot arrow and brought down a small number of rank and file skellies.
Turn 2 Tomb Kings
....and those rank and file skellies were almost all resurrected at the start of Turn 2. The chariots charged into the Ellyrian Reavers. The Reavers took out one of the chariots but the rest of them did enough damage, and had the combat res (they one by 1 point), to force a Break Test which the Reavers failed epically. The Chariots caught them and destroyed them. The chariots ended up next to the archers on the hill, who were more than a little nervous about their proximity. .
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| Chariots run down the Reavers. |
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| Bottom of Turn 2 |
Turn 2 High Elves
The Archers reformed to dump all their shots into the chariots, and even with the blazing banner to aide them the chariots were unharmed. The mage failed to get Fiery Convocation to go either. It was a lame round of shooting for the High Elves actually, however the Shadow Warriors were the exception as that managed to plink 3 Wounds off of the Bone Giant.
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| The run down. |
After more arrow trading, the Tomb Guard unit, which had been joined by the Tomb King and Royal Herald with the army battle standard since the beginning of the battle, charged into the Swordmasters which had been joined by the Noble Loremaster. This Tomb Guard unit had been riddle with bolts from both Bolt throwers for the previous two turns, and most, if not all, of the casualties had already been raised back. So this unit came sweeping in like a tidal wave. Thanks to the faster Initiative of the High Elves they were able to strike first. The Tomb King challenged the Loremaster. but in the end their fight was a draw. Despite killing morem the Tomb Guard was able to beat the Swordmasters by 1 CR. and rolled a 12 on their Break Test. Oops. They fell back in good order, and I thought for sure I was about to get wiped out the I rolled a '5' on the fallback. Well, Isha smiled on them in that instant as the Tomb Guard rolled a '2' on their pursuit roll!
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| The first engagement. |
The Swordmaster with the Loremaster Rally and Reform, bracing themselves for the Tomb Guard's inevitable assault. The mage cast Shield of Saphery on the other unit of Swordmasters giving them a 5+ ward Save (remember this). That unit of Swordmasters charged the bone giant, which seemed like the best tactic they had to chose from. On the shooting phase, the Shadow Warriors take out three Tomb Guard with their longbows. Weirdly, neither the Bone Giant now the Swordmaster caused any wounds, but the Bone Giant lost a Wound due to the cr difference of '1'.
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| The odds stack. |
The sneaky Liche Priests had moved up enough to try to cast some nasty spells on the High Elves and they successfully cast Incantation of Desiccation on the Swordmasters engaged with the Bone Giant (remember this). As predicted the Tomb Guard slammed into the Sword Master unit with the Loremaster. The Loremaster and the Tomb King we fighting in a challenge once again , and this time the Loremaster was starting to fight back a bit harder, as did the Swordmaster who won the combat this time which only caused a few more Tomb Guard to sink back into the ground due to the difference in Combat Resolution. .
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| Duel of the ages (wide angle (wide angle view) |
Remember when I said to remember those two spells? Well, we wouldn't remember them until the next turn! LOL. It is what is, and we decided it was too far along to try to revise history.
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| Ushabti right before the charge. |
TURN 4 High Elves
On the High Elf shooting phase the Shadow Warriors made a break from the woods and tried to shoot one of the Liche Priests but their effort failed. The two Bolt Throwers tried to take out the chariots but also failed. Only in the Combat phase did the High Elves see a glimmer of hope as they wiped out the Tomb Guard and the Royal Harold!
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| Felling of the Royal Harold |
The Tomb Kings Turn five was mostly just maneuvers and shooting, but no real achievements were gained. However Another group of skeletons charged in to attempt to finish off the Swordmasters. And they got close to making it happen! Meanwhile the two army leaders were slowly whittling each other down.
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| Reinforcements. |
TURN 5 High Elves
Desperate, the achers managed to eliminate one of the Ushabti. After witnessing what they did to the Swordmasters you can bet they were now a target priority. Those two chariots were rumbling down toward the Bolt Throwers. They had been moving at their regular Movement so that could get shots off and had knocked one of the Bolt Throwers down to a single Wound. The Bolt Thrower crew must have been rattled or something as most of their shots missed, the chariots shrugged off the two hits that did wound.
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| Desperate defense. |
Over on the other flank the fight continued on, with the Loremaster and Tomb King continuing to play paddy cake. The Swordmasters themselves were now down to a single guy, the Bladelord (Champion), who was continuing to wipe out skeletons with his flaming sword.
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| The final fight. |
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| The battle ends (Right flank). |
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| The battle ends (left flank) |
High Elves: 463
Tomb Kings of Khemri: 390
Essentially, that surviving Swordmaster Champ would have made the TK score 569 (Swordmasters+ Banner) had he not survived that last round.
>phew<
A technical win, but the High Elves are happy to take it!
But wow, what a grind! I had no idea I had won until the VPs were tallied. in fact, I wasn't even aware that it was such a close game. This was our first time using Tomb Kings. Bob ran them very well, and took full advantage of their ability to raise the dead. It made the feeling of attrition and futility feel very real to me as my glass hammer of an army was shattering against all the odds. Who is to say how round 6 or 7 would go had we continued on. We can theory-hammer this to death but our dice were both being fickle in the end. Although, once again, Bob's ability to roll 6's when he needs to is uncanny, But I had a few instances of surprising luck as well). All-in all, it was a good game, and a very challenging one! I look forward to seeing how Bob continues to grow this Tomb King army. Yes, some mistakes happened, but in the spirit of play we just pushed past them and learned from them.
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| Party on the hill. |
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