This is the third part of my Cancon report. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.
Game 3 - Flank Attack
Koen Garlick-Trease - Tomb Kings of Khemri (Mortuary Cult)
- High Priest (Level 4, Necromancy) with Hand Weapon
- High Priest (Level 4, Elementalism) with Hand Weapon, Amulet of the Serpent
- Arch Necrotect with Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Whip
- Mortuary Priest (Level 2, Elementalism) with Hand Weapon, Battle Standard Bearer
- 39 Skeleton Archers with Hand Weapons, Warbows, Master of Arrows
- 5 Skeleton Horse Archer with, Hand Weapons, Warbows
- 5 Skeleton Horse Archer with, Hand Weapons, Warbows
- 8 Skeleton Skirmisher with Hand Weapons
- 4 Tomb Swarms
- 6 Ushabti with Hand Weapons, Heavy Armour, Greatbows
- Tomb Scorpion with Ambushers, The Terrors Below
- Tomb Scorpion
- 5 Venerable Ushabti with Hand Weapons, Heavy Armour, Ritual Blades
- 5 Venerable Ushabti with Hand Weapons, Heavy Armour, Ritual Blades
- Casket of Souls
- Necrosphinx
Man, that was a lot of magic. 10 spells plus the casket, and the ability to boost the casting values on his spells by harvesting the swarms (I found out how that worked as we went along)... I was a bit worried about how this would go. Mercifully it wasn't as bad as it might have been, given Koen was more interested in using the casket for the Light of Protection than the Light of Death.
Man, that is a bunker. All of the characters were piled into the big Skeleton Archer unit, which of course meant they'd be firing poisoned arrows thanks to the Amulet of the Serpent. The Venerable Ushabti went on either side in slightly jammed formations (I don't think Koen fully realised how awkward it would be to get them out of those shapes without advancing).
The bow-armed Ushabti took up position on the hill. The Tomb Scorpion and Necrosphinx deployed last on the flank as part of the Flank Attack scenario.
The Skeleton Horse Archer units both scouted into opposite corners of the table. You can see I happily vanguarded toward them before the first turn.
And there's the other unit, lurking on my flank. Dangerously close to the Furies, really.
I then won the roll-off for the first turn, which was bad news for the Skeleton Horse Archers.
Very bad things happened to both of these units. We won't talk about that anymore.
Getting the first turn was good, given I needed to get across the table and get to grips with all that shooting and magic. But actually getting there safely... The Bloodthirster flew up and basically hugged the forest. He wouldn't likely be able to see anything the next turn, but he should at least still be alive then.
I advanced aggressively nut was also trying to avoid giving the enemy good shots (or charges) on the units that really wouldn't enjoy it. It was a little awkward. The Flamers got a boost from Steed of Shadows, which is how they sped across so quickly.
Well, looks like this might be it, fellas...
And then the magic started. And went on and on... Things got buffed. Things got nerfed. Things floated around as a vortex. Many swarms were absorbed for the cause, but that didn't really matter - Koen assured me they'd all come back. They always come back...
The actual shooting was less painful than I had feared. Koen didn't roll that much poison, and the toughness, armour and ward saves of the Bloodcrushers fended off the worst of it.
Over on the flank, I think the Scorpion and Necrosphinx thought they were cornering the Bloodthirster.
In my second turn, the Bloodcrushers seized their opportunity and charged. I gave them what magical assistance I could, but the Ushabti had Light of Protection and other things going on, so they were getting more help than we were. We did OK, but not great. A trade of 2 dead Ushabti for a Bloodcrusher. But hey, we couldn't be shot anymore.
I would have charged over here, but decided that I had stuffed up my lines and the Fleshhounds needed a second wheel because of the corner of the house. Maybe I had thought the Ushabti were going to step forward, rather than trying to dance on the spot. The Flamers managed to get another round of Steed of Shadows, bounding right up in the enemy backline.
The Bloodthirster scoffed at the pitiful efforts to fence him in, and marched clear out of the Necrosphinx's line of sight. He was now looking at the flank of the Skeleton Archers, which I think caused a bit of panic in my opponent.
The Venerable Ushabti now decided to charge the Fleshhounds and the Swarms engaged my Flamers (I had clearly gone mad with power and flown too close). The Fleshhounds ended up collapsing under the weight of the enemy charge, and the Ushabti reformed.
I seem to have stopped taking photos for a bit, possibly because I was losing focus. Koen was trying to work out what to do about the Bloodthirster, and trying to shift the Skeleton Archers in such a way that things might not go completely terribly. I think the main thing was just to get him into their front arc, which might have given some of them a shot now as well as a potentially horrible "stand and shoot" if he charged. This took some time, along with the various spells. Everything got reserve moves thanks to magic. Things shuffled. Almost all of the damage that the Bloodcrushers had done to the Venerable Ushabti was undone by raising, then we hacked the same ones down again.
In my turn the Bloodthirster again did something other than what Koen was expecting, and flanked the Ushabti on the hill whilst the Bloodletters went into the front. The big archer unit was a bit too risky, and even if he got there in one piece, it just would have been a tar pit given the size of the unit. This combat really should have gone pretty well. I actually dared entertain visions of smashing them aside in a turn. Somehow my rolling was just not up to snuff (I know, that doesn't sound like me, right), and we barely scratched the Ushabti. We won, but not by a lot.
The Furies behind the lines had taken some casualties from something (most likely magic), but they bravely flew in against the swarms, given the Flamers were in trouble. The Fiends and Daemon Prince charged and removed the Venerable Ushabti. The Fiends failed to restrain their overrun, and ran into the house.
Having found himself bogged against apparently invincible Ushabti, the Bloodthirster was then rear-charged by the Necrosphinx, and flanked by the Tomb Scorpion. Both of them had Monster Slayer... But this was OK, we came prepared. The Bloodthirster was quick enough to go first (mercifully the Scorpion had been too close for a full boost to his initiative). He split his attacks, mashing the Scorpion back into the sand and half-killing the Necrosphinx. Thankfully the Necrosphinx didn't just remove him in return, and we ended up winning combat by just enough that the thing crumbled. Most of the Ushabti were still there, of course.
And somehow, that was the end of the game. We had only completed 3 turns, which does not constitute a game of Warhammer. It's fair to say that I was not to blame - Koen spent a fair bit of time trying to finagle the units that he'd jammed pretty close together in a defensive castle, and the sheer number of spells he was casting meant that unless you were a well-oiled machine and knew exactly where everything was going, it was always going to eat time.
It was a bit frustrating. You don't want to set up against what's basically a defensive gunline and then only get to play half the game. I was going to win the game by a lot more than I did, although it would have been interesting to see if I could have properly cracked the big unit with enough time. More likely I would have had to content myself with cutting characters out of the front ranks.
The points were 655 for me (2 Skeleton Archer units, a unit of Venerable Ushabti, the Scorpion and the Necrosphinx), and 170 for Koen (just the Fleshhounds).
Result: 12-8 win
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