So some time ago (more than 3 months, truth be told), Pete and I decided that in honour of the games club celebrating its 20th year, we should play a retro game of Warhammer. Specifically, we should play a game of 5th edition, which was what we were playing way back when the club started. Sounded like a bit of fun. Why not?
Well, it's been 3 months and my emotional scarring has mostly healed. I am now ready to share with you my tale of misadventure and woe...
My Empire
I grew up playing Warhammer 4th and 5th edition. I played countless games against my friends, and toward the end, even a few tournaments before 6th edition came along. Much of the time, I was fighting tougher opposition in the form of Undead and Chaos. Only I was not using Empire. I was using High Elves and Wood Elves. I didn't own an Empire army. Using High Elves (mostly with the rather underwhelming 4th edition army book) was a struggle against these stronger lists, but I made do - predominantly with magic. Nowadays I do have an Empire army, and I think of it as my main army. But I really didn't use it until 8th edition. 5th was a very different, unforgiving beast...
So now I set about making a 5th ed Empire army for the first time. I did it with only a few mandatory requirements in my head. The main one was: take a level 4 wizard. I would need it to avoid being bossed horrendously in the magic phases. Oh yeah, and a volley gun. Because those were funny. In the end my list looked something like this:
- Empire General on Pegasus with Armour of Protection, Dragon Slayer Sword, Shield
- Wizard Lord with Bright Magic, Black Amulet, Skull Staff, Dispel Scroll
- 5 Knights Panther with Standard of Shielding. Led by a Hero with Blade of Leaping Copper, Potion of Strength on Barded Steed with Heavy Armour, Shield
- 5 Reiksguard Knights with War Banner. Led by a Hero with Runefang on Barded Steed with Heavy Armour, Shield
- 19 Swordsmen with Light Armour, Shields, Standard
- 8 Handgunners
- 8 Crossbowmen
- 3 Ogres with Halberds, Light Armour
- Helblaster Volley Gun
I'm not going to pretend it was a really well thought-out list. And man, does it look tiny on the field.
Pete's Vampire Counts
Unlike me, Pete was actually using this army way back in 5th edition. Well, he was using different models. But the same army book. The difference was that back then, Pete operated under some self-imposed limit of 50 point magic items. What a nice guy. Then we broke him and hardened him and turned him into something else... Something evil... Well maybe not, but his lists definitely toughened up over time.
- Vampire Lord with Hydra Sword, Black Amulet, Carstein Ring, Pure Blood
- Necromancer Lord with Golden Crown of Atrazar, Skull Staff, Dispel Scroll, 2-Handed Weapon
- Wight Lord with Heavy Armour, Shield, 2-Handed Weapon
- 6 Wight Cavalry with Lances, Shields, Heavy Armour, Barding, Standard Bearer with Standard of Shielding
- 18 Skeletons with Shields, Standard, Musician, Banner of Might
- 17 Zombies
- 10 Zombies
- 2 Vampire Bats
- 2 Spirit Hosts
- Banshee
- Winged Nightmare
Before the game started, we needed to choose spells. We had agreed to use the Colleges of Magic from 4th edition (they were a "back of the book" option in 5th), because the soulless Battle Magic that replaced them was offensive on many levels. I chose Bright Magic in the hopes of getting a spell like Piercing Bolts of Burning and Conflagration of Doom - spells which even Vampire Lords had to respect back in the day. Unfortunately, when I actually got my spells, I didn't get either of these. In fact, I got probably the 4 worst spells in the deck for this game: Burning Head, Sanguine Swords, Scarlet Scimitar and Flamestorm. It was incredibly underwhelming. On the bright side, Necromancers got to actually pick the spells they want. So Pete had no such issues. That's fair...
How we set up. Was this a normal amount of terrain? Maybe? Who can remember, really...
