He looked up from the dusty tome, a vague sense of unease passing across what was left of his withered face. Lahmizzash did not look pleased, although in fairness, he never really did.
"You will capture land in the woodland, and drive out the Asrai," the tomb king intoned.
"You will go, now."
Inathor would have sighed, if he had lungs. "Yes, your excellency," he replied and shambled out of the tent. Ugh, wood elves. This wouldn't be easy.
Welcome to the latest battle report in my Tomb King campaign adventures. This was another 2,000 point affair, but we were playing a meeting engagement this time as I looked to steal some territory from the Asrai.
The lists:
Wood Elves
S - Spellweaver: Lvl 4, Beasts (Wyssans Wildform, Flock of Doom, Amber Spear, Savage Beast)
B - BSB
GG - 14 Glade Guard - Hagbane arrows
EG - 19 Eternal Guard - full command, shields
GG2 - 5 Glade Guard - musician
TK - 8 Treekin
W - 7 Wardancers
WR1 - 5 Wild Riders - standard, musician, shields
WR2 - 5 Wild Riders - standard, musician, shields
T - Treeman
GE - Great Eagle
Tomb Kings
TK - Tomb King: Great wpn, shield
LHP - Liche High Priest: Lvl 4, Nehekhara, heirophant (Desert wind, smiting, vengeance, desiccation)
LHP2 - Liche High Priest: Lvl 4, Death (doom and darkness, purple sun, fate of bjuna, soulblight)
N - Necrotect
SA - 19 Skeleton Archers: Standard, musician
SW1 - 35 Skeleton Warriors: Spears, shields, full command
SW2 - 20 Skeleton Warriors: Shields, full command
SH1 - 5 Skeleton Horsemen: musician
SH2 - 5 Skeleton Horsemen: musician
SC - 4 Skeleton Chariots: full command
NK - 4 Necropolis Knights: standard, musician
C - 4 Carrion
CoS - Casket of Souls
Tomb King Turn 1
With a lot of creaking and clacking of bones, the Tomb King line advanced steadily. Vanguarding skeleton horsemen made use of their additional pace to be a nuisance and the carrion flapped lazily towards the glade guard in front of them.
I needed to deal with those wild riders. My poor opponent had been bringing some warhawk riders, but they fell out of a case or off a movement tray and had to go to the great repair tree first, so he'd had to sub in more wild riders. Deadly stuff for most of my units. I also needed to work out what to do with those tree kin...
Magic was fairly quiet with a low roll for the winds, but I did manage to cause a wound to the eagle with my death liche priest, and even caused the feathered fiend to suffer stupidity!!
On my right, the chariots didn't feel lucky enough to make a long charge into the wild riders, but managed to kill 2 of them with their short bows. Tidy.
My much-feared skeleton archers also cut down 4 of the glade guard with a double volley, after casting the smiting spell. Over the wood elves!
Wood Elf Turn 1
Both wild rider units lowered their spears and charged, one crashing into my chariots and the other into the skeleton horsemen on my left flank.
In the centre, there wasn't much movement but the eagle did fly in front of my necropolis knights to prevent them getting into the heart of the wood elf lines.
Magic was painful, as a boosted amber spear went off and killed 2 necropolis knights and injuring a third. Inathor cursed under his breath...
The wood elf shooting targeted the necropolis knights but only got one wound through (thankfully!).
In combat, the chariots and horsemen were utterly destroyed. Oops!
Tomb King Turn 2
With a sibillant hiss, the necropolis knights charged into the eagle in front of them, and it chose to hold. My remaining horsemen moved to be a nuisance on the treeman's flank and the carrion flapped forward again to deter any charges at my lines.
Finally the large block of spearmen advanced to the edge of the central building.
Magic was again a fairly low roll, but the casket claimed some more souls as it destroyed the wild riders on my right flank - one down!
In the shooting phase, three more glade guard were cut down.
The eagle struck first in the combat, but was unable to do any damage, and my elite unit absolutely whiffed, causing zero wounds. The eagle held its nerve!
Wood Elf Turn 2
Inathor's inexperience and left the hapless skeleton horsemen open to a charge from the hulking treeman, and so he crashed in.
In the centre, the wardancers decided to charge forwards into the carrion, hoping to remove my chaff units entirely.
Magic was reasonable, with the wood elf mage casting Savage Beast of Horrors on himself, but me dispelling Wyssans.
There was no shooting that I recall, due to the combat in the centre.
The uber wood elf spellweaver and the wardancers managed to cause a bucket of wounds, but left one carrion alive and as he crumbled into dust, the winged beast was able to kill the spellweaver in return...
This was to prove critical as the tomb kings now had utter magical dominance.
Tomb King Turn 3
This time the tomb kings' executed a pair of charges of their own. A mistake by the wood elf general had meant the spearmen could get into the flank of the wardancers, and in they charged. My remaining necropolis knights almost made a long charge into the remnants of the glade guard.
In the magic phase, my heirophant lost two magic levels as he attempted to dessicate the Tree Kin. However, I did cast purple sun, which destroyed two of the magical trees.
Shooting didn't do anything as I plinked arrows off the tree kin.
Although I lost a few skeleton warriors, the wardancers were cut down and the spearmen overran into the flank of the treekin.
Again, the necropolis knights failed to cause a single wound to the glade guard, and were now facing a flank charge of their own...
Wood Elf Turn 3
In went the eternal guard into my necropolis knights' flank, with the treeman and surviving wild rider unit moving to threaten my units.
No magic for the Asrai, and no shooting either!
Predictably the eternal guard made short work of the knights with their poison attacks, but they chose not to overrun out of the forest.
My rampaging spearmen however killed two treekin outright, and ran them down despite needing an 11 on the dice!
Tomb King Turn 4
I reformed the spearmen, and chose to move out my heirophant as I was hoping to bolster the warriors and archers threatened by the wild riders on my side of the battlefield.
Magic saw me regrow a couple of units a little, but little else.
I think I may have killed another glade guard in shooting.
Short but sweet!
Wood Elf Turn 4
The remaining wild riders charged into the rear of my warrior block. Both the eternal guard and treeman moved to offer my spearmen a choice of target...
Shooting killed a few of my archers.
Tomb King Turn 5
Inathor chose the eternal guard, keen to cut down the elven BSB if he could, so the spearmen charged. I reformed my archers to threaten the wild rider flank.
Magic saw me regrow some skeleton warriors, and a soulblight go off on the eternal guard. That was a crucial spell really.
In the combat, the elves went first and kill a fair few skellies with their rerolls, but the soulblight meant I cut quite a few down myself. They were stubborn though, so held.
Wood Elf Turn 5
The treeman saw the chance for revenge and charged my spearmen. By this time, the glade riders had also appeared by my Casket of Souls, but I think only caused a single wound to it despite double shots galore! I won't mention them again...
In the crucial combat, my skellies went before the treeman thanks to the tomb king, and although I again lost a fair few to the eternal guard, I put all my attacks into the unit and wiped them out to remove their steadfast. The treeman smacked a few more, but the BSB fled and was removed as a casualty.
Tomb King Turn 6
My archers crashed into the flank of the wild rider and my spearmen prepared to duel a treeman to the death!
By now my death liche was dead - cut down in a challenge with the eternal guard champion! My heirophant only had 2 spells so I couldn't regrow much unfortunately.
The final wild rider cut several more skeletons down before he was felled himself. My tomb king got 2 wounds through the treeman who didn't roll well for his thunderstomp. He was stubborn as well, so stayed where he was!
Wood Elf Turn 6
Could the treeman do enough to the remaining spearmen? Would an epic thunderstomp win the day?
As it turned out, not really. My tomb king put another 2 wounds on the big tree, who caused a few casualties and rolled well on his thunderstomp, but the skeleton warriors just lost a couple to crumble and that was how the dust settled.
A really fun game unfortunately decided by the jammy death of the spellweaver and a little mistake which allowed my spearmen to flank the treekin and get rid of them.
My necropolis knights were terrible! Accounting for an already-wounded eagle, and nothing else. Tut tut - Lahmizzash will not be pleased...
Magic dominance was key - even if the winds of magic rolls were low - the wood elves just couldn't stop at least one crucial spell a phase which swung combats my way.
It ended a solid victory for the khemri, but on another day.
Thanks for reading!!
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