Undead Legions vs Dark Elves, 2.5k

Overview

Undead Legions

General: Thundercake

• SA1 11 Skeleton Archers
• SA2 11 Skeleton Archers
• SA3 18 Skeleton Archers
• C1 3 Chariots
• M 2 Morghasts
• U1 8 Ushabti
• H 5 Hexwraiths
• HA1 5 Horse Archers
• HA2 5 Horse Archers
• C2 Catapult
• C3 Catapult
• CoS Casket of Souls
• SH Spirit Host
• ME Mortis Engine
• Z 11 Zombies

Dark Elves

General: Brett da Destroyer

• BT1 Bolt Thrower
• BT2 Bolt Thrower
• BT3 Bolt Thrower
• D 10 Darkshards
• E 29 Executioners
• W1 10 Warlocks
• W2 5 Warlocks
• DR1 10 Dark Riders
• DR2 5 Dark Riders
• DR3 5 Dark Riders
• DR4 5 Dark Riders

Deployment

I played  in a 2.5k game of Undead Legions vs. Dark Elves.

My list was:

Liche High Priest, Lvl 4 Nehek, Dispel Scroll

Master Necromancer, Lvl 4 Vampires

Necrotect, Charmed Shield, Obsidian Amulet

11 Skeleton Archers, Musician- SA1

11 Skeleton Archers, Musician- SA2

18 Skeleton Archers, Full Command- SA3

3 Chariots, Full Command- C1

5 Horse Archers- HA1

5 Horse Archers- HA2

1 Spirit Host- SH

5 Hexwraiths- H

8 Ushabti, full command- U1

2 Morghasts- M

Catapult - C2

Catapult- C3

Casket of Souls- CoS

Brett's List was:

Dreadlord, Giant blade, luckstone, charmed shield, OTS, sea Dragon cloak, heavy armour, dark steed

Supreme sorceress. Level 4 shadow, scroll, dark steed, dbane gem

Master. Bsb. Sea Dragon cloak, heavy armour, lance, dawnstone, potion of foolhardiness, dark steed

Master. Lance, Dragon helm, heavy armour, sea Dragon cloak, dark steed, obsidian amulet

5 dark riders spear shield xbow- DR2

5 dark riders spear shield xbow- DR3

5 dark riders spear shield xbow- DR4

9 dark riders spear shield xbow- DR1

10 shards- D

29 black guard standard, burning banner- E

3 bolt throwers- BT1, BT2, BT3

5 warlocks- W2

10 warlocks- W1

 

Deployment looks like this. My necrotect goes with the Ushabti. My Necromancer goes with SA1. My Liche priest goes with SA3. I roll up Smiting, Desert Wind, Vengeance,and Cursed Blades for my Liche Priest. For the Necromancer, I roll up Raise Dead, Hellish Vigor, Danse Macabre, and Wind of Death.

His Dreadlord and both Master's go in the big Warlock unit. His sorceress goes in the big Dark Riders Unit.

Turn 1 - Undead Legions

He move up some of his units during vanguard. Mine sit still during vanguard. Turn one, I move up a number of units. I charge a bolt thrower with a unit of horse archers. I mess up my angles on the spirit host and hexwraiths providing him an overrun into my hexwraiths if he makes the charge on my spirt hosts.

I roll a 5 and a 4 for winds of magic. I get two dice from the casket, putting me at 11. I attempt to caste smiting on SA1 with 3 dice, I fail to cast. I am too far away to caste anything else with that wizard. I then try to caste raise dead on 3 dice and roll triple 1's. I throw the rest of my dice at the casket spell which he is able dispel. My chariots take two wounds off of the DR2 and they flee to the edge of the board. Shooting from SA1 and SA2 takes two wounds of off DR4 but they pass their panic test. A catapult hits the big warlock unit and takes off a wound, but they pass their panic test. The other catapult either hits the Warlock bunker and does jack poop or it hits the Executioner block and does a wound or two. I can't remember. In close combat, he does two wounds and I do a wound and a charge, we stick.

Turn 1 - Dark Elves

He charges my skeleton horse archers with his big unit of Dark Riders and Sorceress. He charges my spirit host with his big unit of Warlocks (and all the characters). The fleeing Dark Riders rally and move back up. He rearranges a lot of other stuff to get charges yet up or to create shooting angles. For magic he rolls a 1 and a 3 with no channels. He tries to caste Doombolt, I dispel it. In shooting he takes a wound off of the chariots using his Dark Riders. He kills a Morghast with his bolt throwers. In combat he easily wipes out the Skeleton Horse Archers and the Spirit Host. He reforms the Dark Riders while the over runs the Warlocks into the Hexwraiths (bad movement on my turn to allow this. He also takes another wound off of the Horse Archers that are engaged with the Bolt Thrower, However, I take a wound off the bolt thrower as well, leaving it with 1 wound.

Turn 2 - Undead Legions

The Mortis Engine gives everything but SA1, C1 and C2 a 6+ regen. This bumps the Ushabti regen to a 5+. I then charge the Morghasts into the flank of his character bunker/bus. I rearrange SA2 so that anything that charges it will overrun into thin air. I move the Mortis Engine and Ushabti so that they can counter charge W next turn or anything that overruns SA2. I move SA3 so that they can shoot at the Executioners. In magic I roll a 4 and a 2. I get two dice from the casket. I get bubble smiting off on everything but the Chariots. This regrows a Morghast (but it only has one wound remaining). I then try to caste Raise Dead for a chaff unit in front of his E, W, DR3, it fails on two dice. He dispels my two dice Casket spell. In shooting, the chariots fail to wound DR2. The archers in the building take a wound off of DR3. Between SA2, SA3 and the catapults I knock his Executioners down to 15 models. In combat, my Horse Archers kill his Bolt Thrower and turn around. His dreadlord goes to town on my hexwraiths killing 3. His warlocks get one wound through on the Mroghasts, bringing them back down to 1. Between the Morghasts and the Hexwraiths I do 4 wounds back. He has a banner, a bsb, and a charge. I have a charge and a flank. He wins by one. My Morghasts mean I don't crumble the one I lose by.

Turn 2 - Dark Elves

He charges his Warlock unit into my SA2. He moves his big Dark Rider/Sorceress unit into position to charge my Casket next turn. He blocks my Horse Archers with DR3. He moves everything up for the most part. In magic he tries to get off a big spell but rolls low on 5 dice and I dispel it. He gets a doombolt off that doesn't do anything. In shooting he puts a wound on the Casket from DR1. He kills a Horse Archers with DR3. He fails to wound the Chariots with his other Dark Riders. The Dark Shards either fail to wound the casket or it gets its regen saves. In combat his big Warlock unit and characters crush. The Dreadlord finishes off the Hexwraiths. The Morghast is able to do two wounds but also takes two wounds. It loses by enough to crumble. He reforms his to face the Ushabti. His small Warlock unit do four wounds to SA2. I do 3 (yay smiting for extra attacks!0 wounds back. He wins by two because of his charge and I crumble two.

Turn 3 - Undead Legions

The Mortis Engine gives everything but the Chariots, SA1, and C2 the regen. The Ushabti charge his character unit/ large Warlock unit. The Mortis Engine charges the small Warlock unit. My horse archer charges DR3. SA3 backs up just a little. In magic I roll a 6 and 5. I end up with 12. I try to get Cursed blades off on the Ushabt on two dice, he dispels it. I use 2 dice to Raise Dead and get 11 zombies that I put right in front of the Executioners. I then try to two dice get Casket of Souls off on the Executioners but it fails. I then put 5 dice into bubble smiting, he dispels it with his scroll. In shooting, my chariots fail to wound DR2 again! SA1 does a wound to the Executioners. C3 misfires and can't fire for two turns. C2 hits DR1 and does two wounds. They pass their panic test.

In combat, my Horse Archer dies terribly and he reforms DR3. Looking back on this I should've sent it at a bolt thrower to try and tie one of them up. The Mortis Engine is able to destroy the two remaining Warlocks after the Warlocks knock the archers down to 2. SA2 and the Mortis Engine reform to face big Warlock Unit and DR4. In the Ushabti combat, he issues and challenge and my Necrotect goes to the back. His characters go to town dealing a total of 6 wounds. Even with my hatred I am only able to kill the two Warlocks and put one wound through on one of his Masters. He does seven wounds overall. I lose by 3 after the charge and the banners cancel. I crumble another Ushabti. My armor save went away with the high strength and the 5+ regen wasn't enough to win that one. Martial prowess did it for the Elves.

Turn 3 - Dark Elves

On his turn he charges the Executioners into the zombies. He charges DR2 and DR3 into my chariots. He charges DR1/ with the Sorceress into my Casket. In magic he rolls decent. He puts four dice into the spell that reduces weapon skill and targets my Ushabti. It goes over irresistibly. It eats the rest of his dice and puts the small template on his sorceress. The blast kills 4 of the Dark Riders, leaving 2. It does not damage the casket. He then shoots one of the two remaining skeleton archers in SA2 with DR4. He pours everything else into the Mortis Engine (the bolt throwers and Darkshards). However, the armor saves and regen saves are enough to stop any wounds from going through. In combat, his Excutioners crush the Zombies and reform to face the building and Morits Engine. His characters, this is all that is left in W1, do 3 wounds to my Ushabti. I do nothing back and crumble another Ushabti, leaving me with 3. He manages to get a wound through on my Chariots but the Chariots do four wounds to DR3. He sticks. Finally DR1 attacks the Casket and is able to do a wound. The guard are able to kill the last two Dark Riders, leaving just the Sorceress.

Turn 4 - Undead Legions

The Mortis Engine gives everything but the Casket, Catapults, and Casket the regen. I move SA1 up to shoot at stuff. I move the lone skeleton archer up to try and march block or chaff up a charge. I move the Mortis Engine back so that he characters will overrun past my Catapult if they charge it. In magic I roll a 1 and a 2. I get 1 dice from the casket. I get smiting off on SA1 and fail to caste raise dead on two dice. In shooting my other catapult misfires and can not fire for this turn or the next turn. SA1 picks off two or three Executioners. SA3 kills one Dark Rider in DR4. In Combat, the Chariots kill 2 in DR2, win combat and run down the remaining Dark Rider. The Casket Guard is able to Killing Blow the Sorceress. The Ushabti take 6 wounds and the Necrotect dies. I am able to kill one Master. The rest of that unit crumbles.

Turn 4 - Dark Elves

On his turn he charges his Master and Dreadlord into the Mortis Engine. He moves up his Executioners to face the building and skeleton archers. He moves the Darkshards up. He has no magic. In shooting, DR4 kills the last skeleton archer. His Darkshards put the last wound through on the casket. It explodes and doesn't get any wounds through on the two characters. His bolt throwers are able to pick off the Chariots, because of the overrun he can go through all three of them. In combat his Master and Dreadlord wipe out the Mortis Engine and overrun into C3 and wipe it out.

Turn 5 - Undead Legions

I move SA3 into teh building and move SA1 out of the charge arch of the Executioners. I should have moved the Necromancer into SA3 but forget about it. I roll a 3 and a 5 for magic. He dispels a bubble smiting that I tried on 4 dice. I then caste wind of death? (the template spell) into his executioners and take out 4. Between all of the archers shooting and the catapult I take out 5 more. This leaves that unit with 3 models.

Turn 5 - Dark Elves

He charges his characters into my last catapult. He moves up his Darkshards and Dark Riders to shoot at SA1. He thinks about charging the building with the executioners but with three guys decides not to do it. He has not magic. In shooting, his Darkshards, Bolt Throwers, and Dark Riders kill all of the Skeleton Archers but not the Necromancer. He crushes the catapult and reforms his characters.

Turn 6 - Undead Legions

I move my Necromancer towards the building. In magic I roll 4 and 2. I get Smiting off on my big unit on 4 dice. He is unable to dispel it. I try to get desert wind off on the Necromancer but fail to caste it. In shooting I put two wounds on the executioners, leaving one model!

Turn 6 - Dark Elves

On his turn he shoots the Necromancer and kills it. He does not try to shoot into the building. He wins, I only have 300-400 points left. His executioner unit is worth 500. If I had taken that down, the final tally would have been a lot closer. At the end of the day, there are a number of things I could have improved on. I could have tried to preserve my archer units and heal them back up instead of throwing them out in the open. I needed to set up my Hexwraiths better. If I hadn't lost them I probably could've taken out his bolt throwers and some of his chaff with them. I should have also restrained with my chariots and let the last Dark Rider flee to keep them alive.

The Report is Copyright (c) 2009 Dillon "thundercake" W. All rights reserved.
The Report by Dillon "thundercake" W is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
This document is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited. Chaos, the Chaos device, the Chaos logo, Citadel, Citadel Device, Darkblade, the Double-Headed/Imperial Eagle device, 'Eavy Metal, Forge World, Games Workshop, Games Workshop logo, Golden Demon, Great Unclean One, GW, the Hammer of Sigmar logo, Horned Rat logo, Keeper of Secrets, Khemri, Khorne, the Khorne logo, Lord of Change, Nurgle, the Nurgle logo, Skaven, the Skaven symbol devices, Slaanesh, the Slaanesh logo, Tomb Kings, Trio of Warriors, Twin Tailed Comet Logo, Tzeentch, the Tzeentch logo, Warhammer, Warhammer Online, Warhammer World logo, White Dwarf, the White Dwarf logo, and all associated marks, names, races, race insignia, characters, vehicles, locations, units, illustrations and images from the Warhammer world are either (r), TM and/or (c) Copyright Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2007, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world. Used without permission. No challenge to their status intended. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners.
Component (c) Tom Wright 2010. All rights reserved.
Component by Tom Wright is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Component (c) 2009 DeeDee. All rights reserved.
Component by DeeDee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Tree miniature (c) 2009 Games Workshop. All rights reserved. Used without permission
Component (c) 2010 Gerry Elliott. All rights reserved.
Component by Gerry Elliott is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Component (c) Lynx7725 2009. All rights reserved.
Component by Lynx7725 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Component is Copyright (c) 2009 Tom Wright. All rights reserved.
Component by Tom Wright is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Component (c) Aaron Port 2009. All rights reserved.
Battle Chronicler Component by Aaron Port is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Component (c) Tom Wright 2009. All rights reserved.
Component by Tom Wright is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Built with Battle Chronicler

In Search of Our Warsphinx Instruction Tablets

Queen Kalidha has decided to lead an expedition North to reclaim the long lost tablets of construction that continued the methods for stone shaping Warsphinxes. These tablets were chiseled by Grand Necrotect Iago. It is believed that the High Elves of ShoeLand traded a dragon egg to some Border Prince of little note for these tablets. Khalidha has sent Prince Jafar and Priest Razoul to recover the tablets.

They take with them a grand host of skeleton warriors and animated constructs from ages past. Their vanguard is composed of

Lords

• Liche High Priest
• Hierophant , Lore of Neht, Wizard Level 4
• Earthing Rod
• Liche High Priest
• Lore of Light, Wizard Level 3

Heroes

• Tomb Prince
• Skeleton Chariot
• Spear
• Enchanted Shield
• Ironcurse Icon
• Talisman of Endurance

Core

• 19 Skeleton Archers
• Champion
• Musician
• 19 Skeleton Archers
• 7 Skeleton Chariots (415pts)
• Champion
• Musician
• Standard Bearer

Special

• Khemrian Warsphinx
• Fiery Roar
• Khemrian Warsphinx
• Fiery Roar
• 8 Ushabti
• Champion
• Musician
• Standard Bearer

Rare

• Casket of Souls
• Screaming Skull Catapult

The pesky Shoeland elves were first encountered on the edges of their realm on a field dotted with a few stands of trees, a couple of hills, and a ruin of some sort (Pesky elves can’t build anything to last, they should come look at our pyramid cities!). In Queen Khalida's haste to send forth Prince Jafar and Priest Razoul she neglected to allow for time to assemble the Horse Archer Scouts from their fields where they feed on dust and dried reeds. This would prove to be a costly mistake in the first battle.

Arrayed against them was what appeared to be a High Elf Border Patrol. Jafar could see at least two giant eagles, and two small groups of knights. The elves also appeared to have a number of those infernal bolt thrower machines along with archers and a core of elite infantry. Razoul should see the magic emitting from two points in the main elf column, they had brought wizards with them as well.

As the leaders of the Tomb King expedition looked across the field they realized the Elves were starting to deploy to the flanks of the Tomb King column, Prince Jafar quickly ordered the two Warshpinxes to secure each flank and protect the center of the Tomb King Line. Meanwhile, the the skeleton archers took up firing positions at the center of the line. As Prince Jafar’s chariots rolled onto the field the High Elf archers took up position opposing them on the far hills. The Ushabti took up positions on the other side of the archers. As the casket of souls and catapults were drug into place the high elf infantry formed up opposite the Ushabti. As Jafar surveyed his lines the high elfs drug their bolt throwers onto hills across the width of the field. 

As the Elven horse started to probe the flanks and their infantry started to move forward there was little time to take further stock of what was happening. The battle had begun. The Elves seemed to be probing the Tomb Kings lines while the bolt throwers, archers, and mages hurled bolts, shafts, and spells towards the Khemerians. Jafar knew his troops wouldn’t last long out in the open, taking this much fire. He ordered the Warsphinxs to engage the Elven horse and sent his chariots and Ushabti towards the Elf lines. Meanwhile, Priest Razoul ordered the catapults to begin firing resulting in one immediately cracking under the strain of the payload and being taken out of action for the day. The casket managed to unleash its tormented souls but was unable to cause significant damage on the enemy lines.

Things were not going much better for the Khmerian melee troops, the Warsphinxs were unable to catch the Elven horse as they kept retreating. The chariots had found a weak spot of ground and were practically stuck in place. They tried over and over to charge the Elven archers without success, and without much movement. On the other side of the battle, the Ushabti were engaged with Elven infantry wearing the hides of lions and wielding great axes. Priest Razoul and Priest Iago were unable to aid them in combat with any spells, the Elven mages were countering anything the winds were willing to give the Tomb Kings. Meanwhile, the Elves were being favored by the winds of magic and their troops fought like lions.

Under hails of bolts and shafts, the chariots were soon almost all gone. The lion elves made short work of the Ushabti and soon caught Priest Razoul by surprise, destroying his unit and wounding him to the point of unconsciousness. The Tomb King archers were able to deal a smattering of wounds to the Elves but not enough to cause any of their units to rout. One eagle became quite brave and as it closed the distance to the archers, was cut down by arrows. One Warsphinx was able to catch a group of fleeing Elven horse and crushed the squirming bodies under its jade stone paws. However, the bolt throwers and archers soon found the weak points in the constructs and shattered them on the field.

Prince Jafar looked around the battlefield in dismay, the elves had suffered minimal casualties while most of his host was scattered among the dirt of the field. His chariot was still stuck in the mud and as he turned back towards the Elf lines he saw a bolt coming straight at him. With his last breath he cursed the damn machine and the pointy eared bastards crewing it. As the bolt took off his legs and crushed his chariot he had the satisfaction of seeing the bolt thrower enveloped in a swarm of beetles. With the collapse of their generals chariot the few remaining skeleton archers crumbled to dust as the elves closed in. 

It was dark when Razoul came too. He had to lay amongest the dried bones of skeleton archers while he concentrated on spells learned long ago to restore his health. Once he was able to stand he slowly picked his way over the battlefield. He walked past the corpse of a giant eagle towards what remained of the chariots. Not much was left of Prince Jafar's chariot, but once he looked under it Razoul realized most of Jafar was still intact. He would have to re-construct his legs but Razoul knew he would be able to wake the Prince once more. As he set to the task he thought to himself, "it was almost as though the Elves had read the tablets and knew the weak points in our constructs. The bolts and shafts made such quick work of the Sphinxs, that must be it!" Razoul knew the tablets were in the possesion of the Elves, they had to be!

Things I Learned from this game

- I had 7 drops to  Aaron’s 9 or more drops. This made it really hard to put combat blocks where they needed to be.  I really needed redirectors and if I took this list again, would drop the Prince and split the chariots into two units of 3 for this purpose.

-I think I took an extra catapult, but it blew up on turn one so it didn’t really matter.

-Elves didn't fail a terror or leadership test all game except for the first casket test. Even with it failed, they have a high enough leadership that it didn’t do many wounds.

-Aaron did a good job of spacing his units so the casket spell couldn’t jump to war machines.

-The Ushabti combat was silly on my part, but if I hadn’t charged they probably would have been charged the next turn. I should have cast Net of Amorek (sp?) on one of his combat blocks a lot earlier than I did.

-Chariots failed a ton of charges with really low roles meaning they never got into combat. I probably should have just moved them the second turn and then tried to charge.

-If I was to take this list again, I would either take the chariots as smaller units to hunt chaff or take skeleton horse archers (2 or 3 units of 5) and then a block of skeleton warriors with a prince in it. I would also put a necrotect in to give one of the animated constructs a 5+ ward and give something hatred.

-High Elf shooting hurts a lot more than I thought.

-High Elf magic is pretty good too.